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In  Prosperous  Days. 


HOW  TWO  OmiS  T(R1E^ 
FA^MIJ^G. 


[Originally  published  m  the  ATLANTIC  Monthly /c?^ 
February,  1875 ;  here  given  with  amplifications  a7id 
additions^ 


■BIT 

Dorothea  Alice    Shepherd,    pseud,     '^t 


\-.>^.    1879.  ^^^^y 


BOSTON: 
D.    LOTHROP     AND     COMPANY 

FRANKLIN   STREET,   CORNER  OF   HAWLEY. 


COPYRIGHT, 

1879, 
By  D.  LoTHROP  &  Co, 


HOW    TWO    GIRLS    TRIED 
FARMING. 


DOROTHEA    Alice    Shepherd    and 
Louise  Burney  v.  Fate. 
Yes,     that     was     the     way     the    case 
stood.      We  were  making  the  fight. 

I  confess  that  we  often  wonder  now 
that  we  dared.  But  success  is  always 
more  or  less  enervating.  Our  needs 
gave    us   requisite    intensity   then. 

I    suppose     Fate    and     Folks     thought 


7 


8       How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

we  were  very  well  off  as  we  were  — 
Louise  as  housemaid  in  a  country 
family  where  she  was  "  as  good  as  any- 
body," and  I  as  district  school-teacher ;  at 
least,  I  know  that  in  the  first  of  the  strug- 
gle the  sympathy  was  all  on  the  wrong 
side.  It  is  a  very  fine  thing,  now  that 
we  have  succeeded;  but  there  were  days 
and  times  when  —  well,  never  mind!  it 
is  little  matter  since  we  have  succeeded ; 
since  we  have  accomplished  nearly  every- 
thing which  they  predicted  we  never 
could  do. 

Still,  just  here  I  must  set  it  down 
that  no  woman  ever  encouraged  us  in 
our  various  plans  for  change  and  bet- 
ter times.     The  men  to  whom  we  talked 


How   Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,        g 

smiled   weakly  and  said  little  —  I  suppose 
they    considered     us     hardly    worth     dis- 
couraging.   But   women    actively    discour- 
aged   us.       It    was    not    our    fortune    to 
meet  any  who    were    essaying    independ- 
ence   for    the    sake    of    the    theory,    but 
only  those  who    were    trying    to    earn    a 
living.     Of   these,    the    most    experienced 
and    the  most  courageous,  when  we    con- 
fided   to  them  the  plan  which  we    finally 
carried  into     execution,    gravely     advised 
abandonment.      Whenever   it    came    to  a 
face-to-face    talk    with    those    women    who 
had  experimented  in  business,  whom  the 
outside     world    looked    upon    as    success- 
ful,  they,  every   one,  confessed   to   a  sort 
of    heartsick    weariness.      We    found    not 


10      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

one  who  held  up  her  own  example  and 
experience  for  our  admiration  and  hope. 
We  found  not  one  who  recommended 
to  us  her  own  way  of  earning  a 
living. 

"  It  costs  all  it  comes  to,"  said  each 
and  every  one. 

Those  in  salaried  positions  were  the 
cheeriest,  wore  the  fewest  care-lines  on 
forehead  and  cheek. 

We  found  no  woman  feeling  comforta- 
ble over  an  investment  of  money,  except- 
ine  in  cases  where  the  business  was  in- 
telligently  "kept  small,"  kept  within  the 
limits  where  the  proprietor  herself  could 
perform  the  labor,  or  nearly  all,  thus 
paying  out  little  or  none  of  the  profit  to 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.       ii 

employees.  These  safe-going  persons 
were  continually  "  taking  stock,"  and  bal- 
anced  their  books  every  Saturday. 

We  found  fewr  speculators  ;  women  who 
dared  borrow  capital  and  flaunt  a  showy 
business  on  the  strength  of  a  man's  in- 
stinctive belief  that  "  business  must 
brighten  soon." 

These  investigations  upset  for  us  many 
an  ideal  possibility  in  "  trade." 

"Don't  invest  in  fine  goods  —  don't 
trade  on  the  'innate  love  of  the  beauti- 
ful,'" very  earnestly  said  one  woman  to 
us,  a  woman  whom  we  had  long  ob- 
served and    envied. 

A  year  later  her  chromos  and  portfo- 
lios   of    fine    engravings,  the    water     col- 


12     Hozu  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

ors  and  the  art  needlework  which  she 
had  hopefully  and  helpfully  bought  from 
white-handed  toilers,  the  costly  illustrated 
gift-books,  the  inlaid  cabinets  and  the 
beautiful  carvinG^s  which  had  made  her 
store  the  loveliest  lounging  place  in  the 
little    town,    were     sold     for     twenty-five 

cents  on  the  dollar. 

"  I  keep  showy  goods,  but  not  fine 
ones,"  said  another  —  one  of  the  half- 
dozen  prosperous  tradewomen  I  know  — 
the  proprietor  of  a  fancy  goods  store. 
"  I  buy  for  the  small  every  day  happen-to- 
needs  of  the  household.  The  ladies  who 
wear  fine  crepe  lisse  and  real  silk  rib- 
bons would  hardly  buy  at  my  store  —  no 
matter   how  good  ni}'  wares.     It  is  safer 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.       rj 

to  keep  store  for  that  class  of  customers 
who  are  paid  wages  every  Saturday- 
night." 

She  is  fully  persuaded  that  were  she  to 
go  into  handsome,  spacious  quarters,  and 
full-stock  her  counters  and  shelves  after 
her  own  aesthetic  ideas  she  would  "fail 
up"  before  the  close  of    the  year. 

Said  another,  more  easy,  more  heart- 
less, more  happy-go-lucky  than  the  others, 
"  I  am  going  to  sell  out  —  make  a 
change.  I  have  had  a  good  time  so  far, 
but  I  know  better  than  to  go  on.  I 
should  break  sooner  or  later ! " 

Lou  and  I  now  know  —  nay,  we  hear 
rather  —  of  women  who  have  succeeded 
in   active  business ;    but    at  the    time    of 


/^     How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

our  own  struggling  forth  all  we  could 
learn  of  any  woman's  experiment  in  in- 
dependence was  depressing. 

So,  as  I  said  before,  I  wonder  that 
we  dared. 

People  who  have  become  interested 
in  us  since  our  success  say  that  Lou 
and   I  are  each  the    other's    complement. 

Perhaps.  We  are  wholly  unlike,  yet 
agree  and  lean  upon  each  other. 

Ever  since  we  were  tiny  school-girls 
we  had  owned  in  joint  proprietorship 
many  Spanish  castles,  where  we  largely 
lived  when  together,  as  neither  of  us 
had  any  other  bona-fide  home.  But  the 
time  came  when,  instead  of  reading  and 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,       75 

romancing  together,  we  spent  our  leis- 
ure hours  in  scolding  over  our  lot.  I 
suppose,  indeed,  that  had  we  been  mem- 
bers of  the  International,  or  of  a  Com- 
mune, instead  of  a  pair  of  harmless  Yan- 
kee village  girls,  we  could  not  have  dis- 
cussed the  problems  of  work  and  prop- 
erty much  more  fiercely  than  we  did. 
Only  I  don't  think  we  ever  thought  we 
had  a  right  in  other  people's  property. 
Even  to  us  two  simple  girls  it  would 
have  seemed  an  absurdity  that  one 
should  reason  he  had  a  right  to  what 
another  had  lawfully  gained  or  inherited. 
But  we  did  want  a  home;  we  did 
want  to  be  our  own  mistresses ;  we  did 
want   some   means   of    living   that  should 


1 6     How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmiiig. 

be  independent  of  the  caprices,  the  Hkes 
and  dislikes,  and  the  varying  fortunes 
of  others.  And  to  us  this  seemed  lit- 
tle, something  that  should  be  simple 
of  getting,  not  overmuch  to  beseech  of 
Fortune,  to  demand  confidently  of  Fate. 
But  I  am  bound  to  confess  that,  al- 
though we  read  everything  we  could 
find  on  the  subject  of  Labor,  and  made 
constant  inquiry  relative  to  every  occu- 
pation we  had  known  women  to  under- 
take, at  last,  turning  from  every  one  of 
the  traditional  industries  of  our  sex,  find- 
ing all  those  ancient  avenues  crowded, 
it  was  a  very  long  time  before  we  could 
discuss  our  own  future  without,  at  each 
interview,    going    through  with   a  certain 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.       ij 

amount  of  day  dreaming  —  perhaps  wo- 
men do  not  easily  distinguish  between 
planning  and  wishing.  I  think  Louise 
believed  she  was  planning  whenever  she 
said  afresh  what  she  already  had  said  a 
hundred   times : 

"  I  should  prefer  something  that  would 
take  us  among  books,  shouldn't  you, 
Dolly  ?  If  we  only  had  money  we  would 
begin  a  little  store :  books  on  one  side 
with  a  nice  news  counter,  and  on  the 
other  side  bottles  and  drugs.  Don't  you 
think  so,  Dolly,  some  day }  " 

Whereupon  Dolly,  also  for  the  hun- 
dredth time,  would  remind  her  of  the 
two  ladies,  tired-out  teachers,  who  were 
doing   just    that ;    and    then    she     would 


1 8     How  Two  Girls  Tried  Far mmg. 

also  go  on  to  speak  of  the  amount  of 
debt  incurred  in  addition  to  the  capital 
invested. 

Then  becoming  practical  in  her  des- 
peration, Louise  would  resolve  she  must 
save  up  her  wages  and  educate  herself 
as  a  teacher  of  mathematics,  while  I 
should  perfect   my   French   and   drawing. 

"If  I  could,  don't  you  think  we  might 
get  hired  in  the  same  school,   Dolly.?" 

Mathematics !  my  poor  Louise !  when 
there  always  has  been  something  the 
matter  with  her  head  where  figures  are 
concerned.  When  she  sets  the  basket 
of  eggs  in  the  wagon  I  always  inquire 
if  the  "  little  pencil "  is  in  the  pocket- 
book.      It    always    is,    for  —  careful    little 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmi7ig.      ig 

soul  —  she  wouldn't  be  the  one  to  peril 
our  precious  gains  by  trusting  to  a  men- 
tal calculation  of  eleven  dozens  at  thir- 
teen cents  per  dozen. 

But,  finally,  when  a  good  plan  and 
capital  to  carry  it  out  both  seemed  im- 
possible, Fate  relented  and  both  the  plan 
and  the  capital  suddenly  *' turned  up." 

A  maiden  sister  of  Louise,  who  as 
housekeeper  had  saved  up  eight  hundred 
dollars,  died  and  left  the  sum  intact  "  to 
us,"  as  Louise  was  pleased  to  say.  And 
one  day  soon  after,  she  laid  down  the 
New  York    Tribune  and  said : 

"  Let  us  go  West !  " 

It  was  meant  as  a  merry  jest;  but  it 
was    a  breeze    to  blow    the  tendril  of    a 


20      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

hitherto  vague  fancy  of  mine  round  a 
''  happy  thought "  which  I  now  know 
many  other  women  have  tried  to  clam- 
ber up  by. 

"  Lou,  why  not  ?  "  I  exclaimed  at  once. 
"  Why  not  go  West  and  buy  a  bit  of 
land  and  raise  small  fruits  for  the  mar- 
kets ?  " 

In  a  few  moments  we  had  talked  our- 
selves brave  and  eager  —  not  so  much 
over  the  work  as  over  the  happiness  — 
the  plan  presenting  itself  to  us  as  idyl, 
pastoral,  holiday,  picnic. 

"  That  would  be  home  and  independ- 
ence beyond  any  of  the  other  plans," 
said  Lou,  who,  even  more  than  I,  hated 
"the    third    person."     "Just   you    and    I, 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      21 

and    nobody    to    deal    with     but    Dame 
Nature  ! " 

I  went  back  to  my  boarding-place.  I 
read  and  reflected.  Unfortunately,  for 
our  project,  I  had  a  genius  for  details 
and  now  it  came  into  baleful  activity.  I 
stayed  away  from  Louise  and  made  fig- 
ures on  the  back  of  a  letter  I  had  in 
my  pocket  until  there  was  not  a  shred 
of  our  bright  plan  left.  Friday  she  sent 
me  a  note,  and  Saturday  night  I  went 
to  her. 

She  took  me  up  into  her  room,  turned 
me  round,  looked  me  attentively  in  the 
face. 

"  Dolly,"  said   she   at   last,  *'  what  have 


22      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

you  turned  down  the  lights  for  ?  Aren't 
we  two  girls  going  out  West  to  raise 
small   fruits ;   or   did    I    dream   it  ? " 

"Lou,"  I  said,  "  have  you  any  idea  how 
long  it  takes  to  bring  strawberries  into 
profitable  bearing,   and  raspberries  too  ? " 

"  I  believe  strawberries  bear  in  June, 
and  raspberries  some  time  in  July  — 
why  ?  "  answered  she  innocently.  "  I  sup- 
pose we  should  set  them  early  in  spring." 

"  Lou  Burney,  we  should  have  to  wait 
as  good  as  two  years ! "  I  cried.  "  Yes 
and  then,  unless  we  were  supernaturally 
early  in  market,  the  bulk  of  our  crops 
would  go  at  ten  cents  per  quart.  I've 
searched  market  reports  through  old 
papers     until     I'm    perfectly   certain    the 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,       2j 

markets     everywhere  —  everywhere,     Lou 
Burney  — must   be    overstocked.      I    am 
convinced    that    it   is   not   safe   to   stake 
our     interests     in     such     an      enterprise. 
We   should    have   to   produce    enormous 
crops  to  make  it  a  business  worth  while. 
And    it    isn't    hkely    two    ignorant    girls 
could    do    that  — at    least    not    at    first; 
and   since,    meantime,    the    two    ignorant 
girls  must  live,  they  had  better  beware." 
"Oh,     Dolly!"    Lou    gasped    at    last. 
"Do  you    mean    to  s^y  all    our    talk    the 
other  night  has  gone  for  nothing .?     And 
you   were   so   sure!      How   could   you.?" 
"  I  hope  you  don't  blame  me  for  look- 
ing   round,"    I     replied,     rather     crossly. 
"One  of   us,  at  least,  should    be   capable 


24       How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

of  that."  Indeed,  I  was  as  sorely  hurt 
as  she,  for  it  was  the  very  first  plan  over 
which  I  had  felt  any  enthusiasm,  any 
hope. 

"  But  you  had  not  the  right  to  be 
sure,  if  you  were  not  sure,"  she  persis- 
ted. "  You  know  how  I  depend  on 
you,  Dolly,"  she  added  pathetically,  "  you 
know  that  when  you  say  anything  is 
so    I   never  inquire   into   it   at   all ! " 

All  of  which  was   true. 

I  could  say  nothing.  She  went  on 
regretfully : 

"  Dolly,  I  do  believe  I'd  rather 
we  hadn't  found  out,  and  gone  on, 
and  tried  it.  It  was  such  a  nice  plan: 
you  and    I   with   a  house   of   our  own — 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Inarming.       25 

it  was  next  thing  to  being  birds  and 
living  in  a  nest.  Yes,  1  would  rather 
have  tried  it,  and  lived  so  a  while 
even  if  we  failed  at  last.  Oh,  Dolly, 
can't  we  after  all  ?  It  couldn't  take 
much  just  for  you  and  me  —  just  two 
girls ;  how  could  it  '^ "  she  went  on 
eagerly,  and  still  more  eagerly.  "  For 
you  know  we  shouldn't  live  like  a  great 
family  —  just  two  girls,  Dolly.  Those 
three  great  regulation  meals  that  always 
must  be  prepared  in  a  family  —  a  fam- 
ily you  know,  where  there  are  men  — 
of  course  that  costs.  Of  course  I  admit 
that  we  couldn't  control  the  cost  at  all,  if 
we  were  so  situated.  But  we  shouldn't 
be  situated  so,  Dolly  —  no,  thank  Heaven, 


26       How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

there  is  no  man  in  our  plan  with  his 
regularly-recurring  hunger !  You  know, 
Dolly,  if  you  will  only  think,  that  half 
the  time  we  should  have  just  a  bowl 
of  bread  and  milk  for  dinner !  and  what 
would  that  cost  ? —  why,  next  to  nothing. 
And  when  we  didn't  want  supper  — 
half  the  time,  Dolly,  I  don't  care  for 
any  supper  at  all  —  why  we'd  omit 
supper  entirely  —  we  could  if  there  was 
no  man  about.  Don't  you  see,  Dolly 
dear,  that  it  couldnt  cost  for  two  girls 
like  a  family,  a  real  family  ?  " 

There  was  something  in  what  Lou 
said  —  and  still  there  wasn't.  I  told  her 
folks  averaged  about  alike  in  their  needs, 
and    what  we    didn't    consume    one   day, 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,       2j 

we  must  the  next,  and  that  I  felt  sure 
the  cost  of  food  for  a  household  of 
women  would  be  about  the  same  as  for 
the  mixed  family. 

"  Well,  then,  how  much  would  it  take, 
anyhow  ? "  said  she,  with  a  little  frown 
between  her  golden  brows.  "  I  don't 
credit  a  word  of  it  that  it  would  cost 
as  much  as  if  we  were  a  real  family 
going  to  housekeping.  Just  think  how 
little  I  ate  for  breakfast  this  very  morn- 
ing—  a  slice  of  bread  and  butter,  an 
^gg'  a  cup  of  coffee — six  cents,  may 
be  —  three  times  six  are  eighteen  cents  — 
seven  times  eighteen  cents  are  seven 
times  eight  are  fifty-six,  and  seven  times 
one    are     seven     and    five     to     carry  — 


28      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

well,  about  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  — 
mercy !  how  boarding-houses  must  make 
money ! " 

Here  she  paused  for  breath,  and  I 
reminded  her  that  she  was  probably  to 
have  roast  beef  for  dinner,  and  would 
need  and  have  a  steak  for  the  morrow's 
breakfast,  and  that  her  figures  were  not 
correct,  any  way. 

"  But  never  mind,"  said  I, "  we  will  as- 
sume that  for  one  day  it  couldn't  cost 
much.      Have    you    any   idea   what  it    is 

said  to  cost  one  person  one  year.^^" 

"  No,  Dolly,  I  haven't,  that  I  know  of. 
But  you  have,  I  see.  I  understand  that 
look;  you're  going  to  bear  down  on  me 
now  with  a  column  of  figures  ! " 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      zg 

Yes,  I  was.  In  my  pocket  I  had  a 
newspaper  slip  whose  figures  and  sta- 
tistics might  well  deter  one  from  waiting 
for  berries  to  grow,  It  was  a  compila- 
tion from  the  Report  of  some  Labor  Com- 
mission, giving  the  average  cost  of  living 
of  the  individuals  of    ordinary  families: 

One  hundred  and  thirty-two  dollars 
and  thirty-three  cents. 

*'  Two  hundred  and  sixty-four  dollars 
and  sixty-six  cents  !  "  she  exclaimed,  after 
some  figuring.  "  Well,  D0II3V  she  added, 
with  a  sigh,  "  we  couldn't  live  while  we 
waited,  if  this  is  correct.  The  berry  plan 
must  be  for  women  who  have  something 
to  subsist  them  while  they  wait ;  we  ought 
to  have  something    to    sell    right    away." 


JO      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

She  took  up  the  slip  again,  and  thought- 
fully looked  over  the  items. 

"  How  much  the  small  things  cost ! 
those  which  people  who  have  them  never 
count  among  the  expenses  of  living  — 
milk  and  eggs  and  butter  and  vegetables. 
I  fear  I  was  thinking  of  only  meats 
and  flour,  and  groceries,  as  the  things 
that  must  be  bought.  To  accomplish 
anything,  we  ought  some  way  to  have 
all  such  things  without  buying,  as,  of 
course,  farmers'  families  do.  Dear  me, 
Dolly,  we  couldn't  for  we  should  have 
nothing  in  the  world  left  after  we  bought 
any  sort  of  a  place,  while,  of  course,  we 
should  need  to  have  some  money  to 
use  right   along   every  day.     I    fear    this 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,     ji 

plan  will  have  to  go  with  the  rest.  I  wish 
we  knew  how  the  women  who  have  done 
such  great  things  with  berries  managed 
while  they  were  waiting  for  their  fruit 
to  come  into  bearing.  Nobody  ever 
seems  to  tell  that  part  of  it.  '  Why  don't 
you  say  something,  Dolly } ' "  she  asked, 
turning  on    me  suddenly. 

"  I  can't.  Not  now.  I'm  thinking.  I'll 
come  again  in  three  days.  Then,  I  be- 
lieve —  I  believe  that  perhaps  I  shall  have 
plenty  to  say." 

Lou  caught  me  by  both  hands. 

"  You  mean  things  when  you  look  like 
this,  Dolly  Shepherd ;   what  is  it  ?  " 

But  I  broke  away  from  her,  not  letting 
too     much    hope    creep     into   my   smile, 


J2      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Far mmg, 

either.  Yet,  I  felt  that  now  I  really  had 
seized  upon  what  Castelar  calls  "  the 
Saving  Idea."  Remember,  I  was  wholly 
ignorant  then  of  the  fact  that  here  and 
there  a  brave,  strong-brained  woman  — 
many  in  the  aggregate — was  doing  this 
same  thing  successfully.  I  say  strong- 
brained,  because  no  flippant  woman  can 
succeed  in  the  management  of  a  farm. 
It  requires  far  clearer  and  steadier  fore- 
sight than  to  buy^  and  sell  successfully. 
Only  the  born  woman  of  affairs  may 
safely  adventure  in  this  direction.  I  have 
met  not  one  of  these  women-farmers ;  but 
I  dare  to  say  they  are  all  good  logi- 
cians, though  perhaps  slow  in  mental 
movement,  whom    no  sophistry   can    mis- 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      jj 

lead,  who  are  never  to  be  diverted  from 
the  main  purpose. 

But  I  would  not  tell  Lou.  I  meant  to 
dissect  this  flash.  I  would  study  it  in 
detail.  Just  at  present  my  mind  was  in 
confusion  with  my  thoughts  all  circling 
round  this  central  idea : 

Could  we  go  West  and  buy  a  farm^  a 
real  farm,  a  ma^is  farm  ? 

It  was  a  startling  thought  to  me  — 
it  might  well  be  to  a  young  woman 
who  never  had  planted  a  hill  of  corn, 
or  hoed  a  row  of  potatoes  in  her  life, 
and  who  had  a  hacking  cough,  and  a 
pain  in  her  side.  Still  I  felt  strangely 
daring,  since  out-of-door  life  was  of  course 
what  I  needed  physically ;  and  home,  and 


j^      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

freedom  from  anxiety  concerning  my  daily 
bread,  certainly  could  not  retard  the  cure. 
For  the  first  time  I  could  find  a  certain 
good  in  the  fact  that  I  was  all  alone  in 
the  world.  There  was  nobody,  either  for 
Lou  or  for  me,  to  interfere  with  our  devot- 
ing ourselves  to  the  solution  of  a  problem. 
If  we  failed,  there  was  nobody  to  be 
sorry  or  mortified. 

Louise  did  not  wait  for  my  mysterious 
three  days  to  expire.  The  afternoon  of 
the  second  she  came  down  to  the  school- 
house.  It  was  just  after  I  had  "  dis- 
missed." 

"Now,  Miss  Dolly  Shepherd!"  de- 
manded she. 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,       J5 

Well,  I  had  gone  through  the  new 
plan  in  detail,  had  thought  and  thought, 
read  and  read,  had  found  there  was  no 
sex  in  brains;  for  out  of  the  mass  of 
agricultural  reading  I  saw  that  even  I, 
should  I  have  the  strength,  could  in 
one  way  or  another  reduce  whatever 
was  pertinent  to  practice.  I  resolutely- 
had  cast  money-making  out  of  the  plan, 
but  I  believed  we  could  raise  enough 
for  our  own  needs ;  and  I  had  thought, 
"  Oh,  Lou  Burney,  if  we  should  be  able 
to  establish  the  fact  that  women  can 
buy  land  and  make  themselves  a  home, 
just  as  men  do,  what  a  ministry  of 
hope  even  our  humble  lives  may  be- 
come !  " 


36      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmmg, 

In  my  earnestness  I  had  tried  vari- 
ous absurd  little  experiments.  In  my 
out-of-door  strolls  I  think  I  had  man- 
aged to  come  upon  every  farming  im- 
plement upon  the  place.  Out  of  obser- 
vation, I  had  lifted,  dragged,  turned, 
flourished,  and  pounded.  I  had  pro- 
nounced most  of  them  as  manageable 
by  feminine  muscle  as  the  heavy  ket- 
tles, washing  machines,  mattresses,  and 
carpets  that  belong  to  a  woman's  in- 
door work.  I  had  hoed  a  few  stray 
weeds  back  of  the  tool-house,  a  mullein 
and  a  burdock  (which  throve  finely  there- 
after), and  found  it  as  easy  as  sweep- 
ing, and  far  daintier  to  do  than  dinner- 
dish-washing  —  and     none     of    it   was    to 


Dolly  tests  her  strength. 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.      jg 

be  done  "  over  the  stove  ! "  To  be  sure 
there  was  the  hot  sun,  but  there  was 
also  the   fresh    air. 

I   felt   prepared   to   talk. 

"Well,  Lou,"  I  said,  "we  will  try 
the  out-of-doors  plan,  and  very  much  as 
we  at  first  talked.  We  will  even  have 
some  berries.  Only  we  will  from  the 
very  first  make  our  daily  bread  and 
butter  the  chief  matter,  and  just  do 
whatever  else  we  can,  meanwhile.  I  don't 
see,  no  more  than  you,  how  these  women 
who  have  done  so  well  with  fruit-raising 
managed  whilst.  But  this  is  the  way  / 
have  planned  for  us  for  whom  there 
shall  be  no  dreary  whilst,  as  we  will  be- 
gin at  once : 


40       How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

"  We  will  take  our  moneys  "  —  I  had 
three  hundred  of  my  own  — "  and  go 
up  into  the  great  Northwest  and  make 
the  best  bargain  we  can  for  a  little  farm, 
which,  "however,  shall  be  as  big  as  pos- 
sible, for  from  the  very  beginning  we 
must  keep  a  horse  and  a  cow,  and  a  pig, 
and  some  hens.  Don't  open  your  eyes 
so  wide,  dear  —  I  got  it  all  from  you. 
It  is  your  own  idea  —  I  have  only  put  it 
in  practical  working  order. 

"  Keeping  a  cow,  you  know,  will  en- 
able us  to  easily  keep  the  pig;  so  keep- 
ing the  cow  means  smoked  ham  and 
sausage  for  our  table,  our  lard,  our  milk, 
our  cream  and  our  butter.  As  you  said, 
we  must  either  have  such  things,  or  else 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.      41 

have  something  to  sell  right  away. 
There  will  also  be,  as  I  have  planned 
it,  butter,  eggs,  and  poultry  with  which 
to  procure  groceries,  grains,  and  sundries. 
There  will  also  be,  in  the  winter,  a  sur- 
plus of  pork  to  sell.  We  shall  also  raise 
some  vegetables.  We  can  also  the  first 
year  grow  corn  to  keep  our  animals, 
and  for  brown  bread  for  ourselves.  We 
will,  among  the  first  things  we  do,  set 
out  an  orchard  and  a  grape  arbor,  make 
an  asparagus  bed,  and  have  a  row  of 
bee-hives.  Meanwhile,  having  thus  se- 
cured the  means  of  daily  life,  I  have 
other  and  greater  plans  for  a  comforta- 
ble old  age." 

These  I  also  disclosed.     She  made    no 


42     How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

comment  upon  them,  but  reverted  gravely 
to  the  animals. 

"  I  should  think  we  might  do  it  all, 
Dolly,  only  the  horse ;  do  we  need  a 
horse  ?  Be  sure  now,  Dolly,  for  a  horse 
would  be  a  great  undertaking.  You 
know  we  would  have  to  keep  a  nice 
one  if  we  kept  any,  not  such  a  one  as 
women  in  comic  pictures  always  drive. 
Be  very  sure,   now,    Dolly." 

"  I  am.  For  we  must  cultivate  our 
own  corn  and  potatoes.  I  can  see  that 
in  small  farming,  hiring  labor  would  cost 
all  the  things  would  come  to,  just  as 
business  women  have  told  us  it  is  in 
other  work,  you  know.  Besides,  how 
could  we  ever  get  to  mill,  or  church,  or 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,     ^j 

store?  Only  by  catching  rides;  our 
neighbors  would   soon  hate  us." 

"  And  who  would  drive  ?  "  asked    Lou. 

I  paused. 

"  You  would  have  to,  I  suppose,"  I 
said  at  last.  I  felt  she  could;  and  I 
also  felt  that   I  couldn't. 

Lou  nodded. 

"  Yes,  because  you  will  have  to  be 
the  one  to  go  to  the  neighbors  to  bor- 
row things,"  she  said,  as  if  balancing  our 
accounts. 

"  We  shall  live  within  ourselves,"  said 
L  "  What  we  don't  have  we  will  go 
without." 

Lou  said  there  would  be  some  com- 
fort   in    that    kind    of    being    poor,    and 


44     How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

grew   jolly    and    care-free    presently,   and 
said  "  we  would  go  at  once." 

Accord  ngiy,  we  came  up  into  Michi- 
gan, to  cousin  Janet's.  Making  her  hos- 
pitable house  our  head-quarters,  we  pro- 
ceeded to  "  look  land  "  like  other  Eastern 
capitalists :  that  is,  cousin  Janet's  hus- 
band took  us  in  his  light  wagon  to  see 
every  farm  that  was  for  sale  within  ten 
miles.  And  it  was  such  fun  —  we  little 
midgets  to  go  tripping  over  magnificent 
estates  of  two  or  three  hundred  acres, 
and  spying  about,  with  only  a  thousand 
dollars  in  our   pockets ! 

Of  course,  they  might  have  known  we 
could  not  buy  them ;    and  we  did  think, 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      ^5 

so  long  as  we  were  "  only  two  girls," 
that  there  was  no  need  for  such  wide- 
spread consternation  when  we  finally 
made  our  choice.  However,  Lou  and 
I  were  of  one  mind.  Cousin  Janet  and 
her  husband  had  anxiously  shown  us 
various  snug  little  village  houses  with 
an  acre  of  ground  attached,  but  we  had 
resolved  to  keep  ourselves  to  the  plan 
of  "  mixed  farming ; "  and  when  the 
whole  of  that  rubbishy,  neglected  thirty- 
five  acres  was  offered  to  us  by  its  non- 
resident owner  for  a  sum  quite  inside 
our  means,  instead  of  turning  up  our 
noses  at  it,  we  felt  it  to  be  a  bit  of 
outspoken  friendliness  on  the  part  of 
Providence ;  and  to  the   astonishment   of 


46      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

the  neighborhood,  instead  of  "haggling," 
and  "  beating  down,"  and  innumerable 
conversations,  man  fashion,  we  bought  it 
without  delay,  at  the  very  first  interview. 

But,  somehow,  we  have  been  obliged 
thus  to  rely,  almost  wholly,  upon  our 
own  judgment  from  the  beginning  —  so 
many  things  which  we  lack  are  neces- 
sary in  order  to  carry  out  a  man's  advice : 
money,  strength,  hired  men,  horses.  Still 
we  believe  that  these  very  lacks,  com- 
pelling us  as  they  have  to  certain  close 
economies  and  calculations,  and  to  care- 
ful studies  of  first  principles,  have  helped 
us  to  our  success  —  a  success  which  has 
not  "  cost  all  it  come  to." 

Our  scraggy  acres  were  a  contrast,  to 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.     ^7 

be  sure,  to  the  handsome  orchards  and 
wheat  fields  we  had  visited,  and  also  to 
the  tolerably  well-tilled  farms  on  either 
side  of  us.  But  from  the  day  on  which 
we  "  drew  writings,"  Lou  and  I  never 
have  looked  upon  the  spot  without  see- 
ing it,  not  only  as  it  is,  but  as  what  it 
is  to  become,  and  is  becoming.  Every 
stone  picked  up,  every  fence  corner 
cleared,  every  piece  of  thorough  plowing, 
every  rod  of  fence  built,  every  foot  of 
trellis,  every  rose-bush  and  grape-vine  and 
shade-tree  planted,  has  been  to  us  as  one 
brush-stroke  more  upon  the  fair  idyllic 
picture  we  saw  in  the  beginning. 

On    our   way    home  from    the    village 
lawyer's     we    again     passed     our    place. 


^f8      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmhig, 

John,  rather  maliciously,  asked  if  we 
would  not  like  to  look  at  it  "  as  a 
whole."  We  assured  him,  with  dignity, 
that  we  should,  and  he  stopped  the 
team. 

"  As  a  whole  "  it  was  a  narrow,  hilly 
stretch  weakly  outlined  by  a  skeleton  of 
a  fence ;  a  forbidding  surface  of  old 
stubble  ground  and  wild  turf,  the  distant 
hill-toj)s  crowned  with  tall  mulleins. 
There  was  not  a  vSprig  of  clover  on  the 
place,  and  though  there  was  an  old 
brown  house  and  barn,  there  was  not  an 
orchard  tree,  nor  a  reminiscence  of 
garden. 

We  sighed,  not  that  our  farm  was  wild 
and  neglected,  but  that    even    the    outer 


How  Tzuo  Girls  Tried  Farming,      ^g 

aspect   told    such    a  black  tale  of    impov- 
ishment  and  robbery. 

Cousin  John  discoursed  again  of  the 
poor  soil  as  we  sat  there.  He  warned 
us  that  we  could  never  expect  to  raise 
wheat.  Wheat !  I  had  seen  little  save 
wheat  since  we  came  into  the  State. 
I  didn't  believe  in  so  much  wheat,  on 
account  of  certain  principles  in  chemis- 
try, and  I  told  him  so ;  and  left  him 
to  laugh  at  my  "  school-ma'am  farming " 
while  I  jumped  out  and  crept  through 
the  bars,  and  ran  up  to  make  sure  the 
old  house  was  locked.  What  an  old 
house !  It  was  growing  dear  to  us  al- 
ready, as  being  our  very  own :  but  in 
reality  it  was    as    brown    and    straggling, 


50      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

as   lonely    and    unpicturesque,  as    a    last- 
year's  nest 

—  "  torn  with  stones  and  rain." 

With  a  strange  new  sense  of  secur- 
ity from  the  ups  and  downs  of  life, 
which  only  the  possession  of  a  bit  of 
real  estate  can  give  one,  we  flitted  away 
to  prepare  to  come  again  to  our  own 
in   the  spring,  with   the  first   robin. 

I  went  back  to  cousin  Janet's  and 
hired  out,  not  to  her,  but  to  cousin 
John;  while  Louise  took  up  her  old 
business  of  housework  at  a  wealthy  far- 
mer's  near   us  —  cheerily,   both   of  us. 

We  had  paid  for  our  farm  —  and  just 
here  I  would  earnestly  advise  that  no 
woman    undertake    what    a    man     often 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,     5/ 

does — and  sometimes  successfully — the 
purchase  of  a  farm  on  credit,  calculat- 
ing to  "make  it  pay  for  itself;"  for  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  frequent 
man's  luck  will  also  be  hers — she  will 
have  paid  in  all  her  capital,  and  she 
will  slave  and  stint  to  "keep  up  the 
interest "  on  the  balance  of  the  price- 
money,  she  will  go  on  doing  so  for 
two,  three,  or  four  years,  the  money  she 
may  make  all  going  in  that  direction, 
instead  of  being  used  for  "  improvements," 
her  farm  probably  becoming  impover- 
ished each  year,  until  at  last  the  land 
returns  to  its  owner  on  "foreclosure  of 
mortgage,"  all  her  toil  and  struggling 
counting  for    nothing,   in    company  with 


^2      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

the  portion  of  purchase-money  paid  in 
at  the  first ;  and  a  woman's  courage  and 
a  woman's  physical  strength  will  hardly 
renew  themselves,  as  in  the  man's  case, 
to  begin  afresh. 

Well,  as  I  said,  we  had  paid  for  our 
farm,  and  there  remained  to  us  funds 
for  the  purchase  of  horse,  wagon,  and 
cow.  Lou,  being  supposed  coolest  in 
case  of  fire,  took  charge  of  the  precious 
deed,  and  of  the  money,  promising  to 
add     thereto,  before   spring,  fifty    dollars. 

"  And  that,"  said  she  sunnily,  "  will  buy 
your  clover  seed,    Dolly." 

"  But  you  know  you  believe  in  clover, 
Lou,  and  the  cows  and  sheep  ? " 

It  was    something    to    shoulder    alone 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      5J 

the  responsibility  of  my  theories  since 
they  were  to  be  carried  out  by  the  aid 
of  another's  earnings. 

"  O,  yes,  dear  Dolly,  if  you  are  certain 
you  do,"  Lou  answered,  cheerily. 

I  really  was   pretty  certain. 

Lou  had  her  two  dollars  each  week. 
What  I  earned  was  twelve  dollars  per 
month  —  good  cousin  John  !  — much  ex- 
perience, and  much  health.  Of  course 
they  wanted  to  keep  me  in  the  house. 
But  at  the  outset  I  contrived  for  myself 
some  shortish  dresses  —  I  did  not  wear 
the  short  dress  as  I  am  constrained  to 
say  I  ought.  A  dress,  reaching  only  to 
the  knee,  with  trousers  graceful  in  the 
cutting,    the  whole  suit   made  of    strong 


5^      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

material  —  tweed,  cheviot,  jean,  linen  — 
is  the  only  sensible  and  suitable  attire 
for  a  woman  doing  out-of-doors  labor, 
Lou  and  I  have  never  worn  it ;  we  knew 
we  ought  —  we  meant  to  some  day,  but 
we  never  have.  We  disliked  it,  aestheti- 
cally; though  I  am  bound  to  add  that 
by  reason  of  wearing  the  conventional 
dress,  we  have  endured  other  ills  much 
more  to  be  contemned  and  held  odious, 
even  from  an  aesthetic  point  of  view 
than  "  the  Bloomer  costume." 

But  the  inches  I  did  cut  off  my  gown 
rendered  out-of-door  movements  practica- 
ble, and  beginning  moderately,  I  worked 
every  day  with  cousin  John  and  the 
boys,  never  once  considering  the  weather, 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,     ^^ 

for  I  knew  that  once  on  our  farm  we 
must  go  out,  rain  or  shine. 

I  found  everything  hard,  but  nothing 
impossible. 

Little  Rob  and  I  cut  up  half  a  dozen 
acres  of  corn,  unassisted.  I  also  helped 
husk  the  same,  bound  my  bundles,  and 
well,  too.  At  first  I  was  greatly  discour- 
aged over  this  same  "  binding,"  as  all 
women  are  :  for  cousin  said  he  couldn't 
sacrifice  too  largely  to  our  experiment, 
and  that  he  wouldn't  have  me  in  the 
husking  unless  I  could  bind  my  stalks 
as  I  went.  I  promised,  but  it  tore  and 
wore  my  hands  cruelly,  and  then  the 
bundles  upon  which  I  had  spent  so 
much  time  and  care,  often  would  fall    in 


^6      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmi7ig, 

pieces  while  I  was    carrying   and    setting 
them  up. 

I  couldnt  bind  with  stalks  as  men  do, 
anyway  —  neither  then,  nor  at  any  time 
afterwards.  When  I  came  into  the  field 
in  the  morning,  I  would  spy  about  for 
any  tall,  supple  grasses,  grown  up  after 
the  last  cultivating,  and,  pulling  them 
up,  lay  in  a  store  for  "  bands."  But  my 
weeds  were  not  always  to  be  found ;  and 
one  day,  when  I  was  at  quite  a  loss 
what  to  do,  I  espied  two  German  women 
in  the  neighboring  field,  occupied  like 
myself,  and  I  climbed  the  fence  and 
called  upon  them,  as  very  properly  I 
might,  they  being  the  later  comers. 
They,   I    found,  had    availed    themselves 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      57 

of  woman's  proverbial  wit;  they  showed 
me   some   balls   of   coarse   twine. 

"  Go  puy  youself  some  palls  of  leetle 
rope,  and  not  tear  you  shmall  hands 
mit  twisting  weeds  and  marsh  hay.  It 
do  take  more  time  to  twist  him,  than 
it   do   to   earn   de   leetle   rope." 

I  returned  triumphant,  and  after  that 
bound  my  stalks,  woman-like,  with  "  leetle 
rope." 

After  the  first  few  days,  I  could 
work  early  and  late.  Cousin  Janet  said 
I  should  surely  finish  myself  up  now ; 
and  Louise  was  afraid  I  would,  too. 
But  day  after  day  I  appeared  in  my 
corn-field,  for  I  was  greatly  interested 
in   this   corn-harvesting   experiment,  since 


^8     How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

I  felt  sure  that  it  was  not  only  the 
grain  we  should  chiefly  raise,  but  that 
it  was  the  grain  that  a  woman  could 
most  easily  cultivate  from  beginnuig  to 
end,  if  she  must  do  it  with  no  money 
for  hiring  labor. 

So  I  persisted.  Of  course  I  didn't 
fancy  wet  stalks,  and  all  sorts  of  bugs, 
and  mice  nests,  and  perhaps  a  snake, 
in  my  lap,  no  more  than  any  other 
woman  would.  Yet  I  persisted;  and 
there   were   compensations. 

The  vigorous  motions  required  to  strip 
and  break  the  ear  from  the  husks, 
and  the  exercise  of  binding  and  carry- 
ing, expanded  my  chest  in  the  same 
manner    as    the    motions    of   the    move- 


Dollv  finds  nothing  impossible. 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      6i 

ment  cure,  and  marvelously  strengthened 
shoulder  and  wrist.  My  cough  ceased. 
The  sunlight  of  the  lovely,  vaporous 
Indian  summer  weather,  and  the  sweet 
■air,  proved  at  once  a  balm  and  a  tonic 
for  my  irritated  lungs  and  stomach,  and 
together  with  the  exercise,  invigorated 
my  appetite.  I  used  to  run  down  to 
dinner  quite  as  hungry  as  the  boys,  and 
bark  gleefully  "  like  a  wolf "  in  Janet's 
ears,  to  show  her  how  ravenous  I  was, 
until  at  last  the  hired  man  —  an  old 
Scotchman  —  said  one  day  to  John,  who 
was  expostulating  with  me  respecting  my 
incessant  labor : 

"  Hoot,   mon !    let  the  lass   alone !    gie 
her    oatmeal    pairrich    for   her    breakfast 


62      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

and  let  her  wark;     them    as  likes    wark 
can  wark  their  fill  on    that ! " 

So  they  can.  Louise  and  I  know  that. 
A  cup  of  strong,  pure,  well  creamed 
coffee,  with  a  dish  of  oatmeal  mush 
dressed  with  cream  and  sifted  sugar,  has 
been  our  daily  breakfast  for  years,  though 
I  own  to  always  craving  and  needing  a 
thoroughly  first-class  beefsteak  for  dinner. 

The  old  Scotchman's  hint  has  been 
a  fortune  to  us  in  the  matter  of  solid 
muscle,  and  perhaps  in  the  way  of 
healthy  thought   also. 

While  I  was  thus  growing  brown  and 
strong  out  in  the  sunny  fields,  I  was 
daily  learning  my  business  working  along- 
side   cousin   John.      I    learned   the    easy 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      6j 

way,  the  "  man's  way,"  of  holding  the 
plow  and  turning  a  furrow,  and  it  was 
a  proud  time  for  me  when  Rob  and  I 
were  trusted  to  plow  out  the  potatoes 
when  potato  harvest  came.  I  "  thanked  my 
stars  "  every  day  then,  as  every  day  since, 
that  I  had  had  the  energy  and  the  sense 
thus  to  carry  out  our  enterprise.  I  was 
taught  how  to  make  a  proper  stack  of  the 
cornstalks —one  that  would  shed  rain  — 
and  how  to  build  a  load  —  I  would 
persist :  if  I  slid  off  the  load,  as  often  I 
did,  I  would  clamber  back ;  and  I  picked 
apples  day  after  day,  until  no  possible 
height  on  the  ladder  could  turn  me 
giddy.  I  drove  the  mower  to  cut  the 
seed   clover;  I  could,    in  my  scant  skirts. 


6/f      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

I  learned  to  milk  fast  and  clean,  how 
to  feed  and  care  for  stock,  and  how  to 
swing  an  ax  and  file  a  saw ;  and  if  I  did 
sometimes  quite  wear  out  John  and  old 
Donald  widi  my  questions,  and  with 
being  in  the  way,  and  with  the  general 
bother  of  a  girl  mixed  up  with  the  work, 
Lou  and  I  don't  know  that  we  care,  t 
would  "  tag  round  "  all  day  at  cousin's 
heels  with  his  little  boys,  who  thought 
it  great  fun  to  go  out  and  work  with 
Dolly,  and  who  among  them  taught  me 
almost  as  many  things  as  their  father 
did ;  and  then  at  night  I  sat  in  the 
rocking-chair  and  questioned  John  about 
sheep,  and  wool,  and  lambs,  and  hay- 
making,  and  afterward  thoughtfully  com- 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      6^ 

pared    what  he    had  said  with  the  Rural 
and  the  Agriculturist, 

Cousin  paid  me  my  wages  by  going 
over  to  our  farm  and  plowing  up  every 
rod  of  it,  save  the  door-yard  and  wood- 
lot.  He  protested  against  the  nonsense 
of  "fall  plowing;"  but  I  insisted,  talking 
"  cut-worms "  and  the  magic  harrows  of 
the  winter  frosts.  He  protested  still 
more  loudly  because  I  bargained  for 
every  load  of  barn-yard  compost  which 
the  farmers  for  ten  miles  around  would 
sell  and  deliver  spread  upon  our  plowed 
land  —  to  "  winter  waste,"  they  said ; 
and  the  neighbors  all  called  me  a 
"  headstrong  girl "  because  after  making 
the    land   so    rich    I    would   not   "take   a 


66      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

wheat-crop  off"  when  I  "seeded  it." 
But  Lou  and  I  knew  a  wheat-crop  was 
an  affair  of  money,  men,  and  teams 
from  beginning  to  end ;  besides,  we 
meant  to  save  the  entire  strength  of 
the   enriched  soil  for  our  future  meadows. 

Many  a  sly  dig  did  I  get  about  my 
stubbornness. 

"  Have  ye  bought  yer  team  yet,  Miss 
Shepherd  '^.  "     Thus   a   friendly    neighbor. 

Miss  Shepherd  is  saved  the  trouble  of 
reply,    by   cousin    John. 

"  A  team  ?  Dolly  an't  a-goin'  to  bu}^ 
no  team ;  she's  a-goin'  to  work  her 
farm  with  idees^ 

Well,  why  not  ?  —  if  I  can. 

So,     pursuant     to     John's      theory     of 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      6j 

"  idees,"  I  question  and  question,  and 
read  and  read,  until  I  have  learned 
the  routine  of  the  main  farm  crops,  the 
number  of  days'  work  per  acre  of  both 
men  and  horses,  cost  of  seed,  and  prob- 
able average,  and  probable  market  value, 
of  yield.  I  also  learn  the  daily  amount 
of  food  consumed  by  each  of  the  meat- 
making  animals,  together  with  the  usual 
market  prices  of  the  different  meats,  and 
also   the  best  time  and  aQ:e  to  sell. 

When  winter  came,  I  returned  to  my 
ancient  employment.  My  school-keeping 
wages  paid  my  debts  to  the  farmers ; 
and  with  the  surplus  I  bought  out  cou- 
sin's hennery  entire  —  the  fowls  and  the 
guano  —  together    with    a    pretty  pair    of 


68      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

Poland  pigs.  Lou  had  purchased  grass 
and  clover  seed,  and  had  learned  to 
drive  ;  and  as  I  knew  how  to  milk,  and 
April  was  near  at  hand,  we  bought  a 
load  of  hay,  handsome  horse.  Pampas, 
and  gentle  cow,  Maggie,  gathered  up 
all  the  old  tools  cousin  had  given  us, 
even  to  an  awl  and  a  draw-shave,  pur- 
chased some  spades  and  a  beautiful  new 
double-shovel  plow  —  ah,  no  woman  ever 
looked  more  approvingly  on  her  new 
piano  than  we  did  upon  our  trim  little 
plow  in  its  gay  red  paint  and  its  ar- 
ray of  shining  shares  —  we  wouldn't 
have  had  a  drop  of  rain  fall  on  it  for 
dollars  ! —  and  went  down  home. 

And    here    a    blessing    upon    the  gray 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      6g 

heads  of  cousin  Janet  and  cousin  John 
is  surely  in  order ;  for  a  portion  of 
everything  in  their  house  was  sent  with 
us,  from  a  bag  of  flour  and  a  ham 
down  to  a  tiny  sack  of  salt  and  the  res- 
idue of  my  oatmeal,  from  a  load  of  nurs- 
ling fruit  trees  down  to  a  bundle  of 
currant  brush  and  a  peony  root ;  and, 
last  of  all,  a  lovely  little  cat,  "to  purr 
and  sit  in  your  lap,  and  make  it  seem 
like  home  in  the  evenino^." 

That  was  what  little  cousin  Jamie  said 
as  he  reached  up  and  put  it  in  my 
arms  after  we  were  seated  in  the  waQ:on. 

Well,  it  was  a  bare  little  house  after 
we  had  done  our  very  best  with  it,  and 
had  it  not  been  our  own  we  should  not 


'/o      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

have  thought  we  could  stay.  We  had 
spent  all  our  money  on  the  land,  and 
for  tools  and  "  live  stock,"  so  that  there 
was  really  nothing  left  for  the  house. 
Perhaps  this  fact — that  we  had  bestowed 
so  little  thought  upon  the  house  itself, 
had  really  felt  so  little  concern  about  it  — 
will  prove  to  those  who  search  to  see 
this  thing,  the  unfeminizing  influence 
of  following  a  masculine  pursuit.  How- 
ever, were  we  not  wise,  true,  brave,  strong.^* 
We  must  not,  no  more  than  man,  put 
in  peril  the  bread-and-butter  item  of  the 
plan. 

But  we  felt  all  that  any  woman  could 
demand  of  us,  that  first  evening.  There 
was  not  one  bright  thing    in    the    room 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      yr 

except  the  crackling  fire,  and  Louise 
with  her  ofolden  hair  and  crimson  cheeks. 
Such  a  home-made  home  as  it  was !  I 
had  braided  a  great  rug,  and  that  turned 
out  to  be  the  only  bit  of  carpet  we  had 
for  four  years.  Our  window-shades  were 
of  newspapers,  scalloped,  and  adorned 
with  much  elaborate  scissors-work.  We 
had  three  chairs,  antiquated  specimens, 
that  I  had  brought  down  from  cousin's 
wood-house  chamber,  cushioned  and 
draped  with  some  of  our  old  gown  skirts, 
and  the  trouble  we  had,  to  be  sure,  with 
those  chairs,  because  we  could  not  step  up 
on  any  one  of  them  to  reach  things !  We 
used  a  stand  in  place  of  table,  for  which 
Lou  contrived  a  leaf — poor  self-deprecating 


7-?      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

Lou,  who,  I  am  sure,  might  have  stood 
and  faced  the  world  alone  as  a  carpen- 
ter—  and  we  slept  upon  an  old-fashioned 
bedstead  which  Janet  had  given  us.  We 
owned  three  plates  and  a  platter,  as 
many  knives  and  fork^,  cups  and  saucers; 
John  said  if  we  had  company  Lou  and  I 
could  wait,  which  we  did.  The  rest  of 
our  in-door  possessions  consisted  of  some 
odd  kettles,  a  score  of  shining  new 
milk-pans,  a  couple  of  sweet  new  cedar 
pails,  a  broom,  a  small  pile  of  books  in 
blue  and  gold,  a  trunkful  of  magazines 
—  unbound  but  precious  —  an  etching 
of  Evangeline,  and  a  splendid  engraving 
of  Longfellow  sitting  in  a  rocking-chair, 
and    Lou's   watch:   that,  truly,  was  every- 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      yj 

thing  we  had  to  put  into  that  great, 
rambling  old  house. 

However,  we  both  still  think  it  was 
better   to  have    bought   the    clover   seed. 

The  first  evening  was  a  strange  ex- 
perience. I  remember  just  how  oppress- 
ive the  silence  became  after  everything 
was  done,  and  we  sat  down.  Finally, 
Lou  cried,  and  I  laughed.  Then  pres- 
ently we  felt  how  absurd  it  was  to  be 
like  this  in  our  own  house ;  and  we 
cheered  ourselves  with  the  pussy  and 
the  fire,  and  said  we  would  subscribe 
for  a  newspaper.  And  pretty  soon,  all 
was  going  well. 

In  due  time  cousin  John  came  again, 
and  gang-plowed    the    fields    we    had    de- 


7-^      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

voted  to  clover.  Then  he  lent  us  his 
team,  and  Lou  and  I  harrowed  and  har- 
rowed. Then  we  sowed  our  clover  and 
timothy,  our  red-top  and  blue  grass  and 
orchard  grass,  all  according  to  the  pro- 
portion and  measure  sent  us,  because  we 
wrote  and  asked  for  it,  by  the  N.  Y. 
Tribune,  We  followed  the  receipt  so 
thoroughly  that  John  was  fain  to  swear 
at  our  wastefulness.  There  was  required 
double  the  quantity  which  any  farmer  in 
that  vicinity  had  ever  sowed  upon  his 
land.  But  we  bought  and  sowed  it.  I 
didn't  believe,  even  then,  that  there  was 
need  for  such  spotted  meadows  as  I  had 
observed  —  the  clover  growing  in  distinct 
patches    and    tufts,    the    grasses    coarse 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.      75 

sparse,  and  wiry ;  I  wanted  some  fine, 
sweet  grasses.  I  will  say  here  that  I 
was  rewarded  for  my  faith  in  liberal 
seeding;  for  owing  to  that,  and  to  the 
plentiful  winter  dressing,  and  the  fine 
seed-bed  we  made  of  all  the  fields,  our 
pretty  trefoil  came  up  all  over  like  wheat, 
or  a  lettuce-bed,  and  our  grasses  are  fine, 
thick,  and  sweet,  and  the  farmers,  the 
big  farmers  of  hundred-acre  fields,  came 
to  look  at  our  little  meadows  and  mar- 
vel at  our  clover,  and  cut  samples  of 
our  orchard  grass  to  take  away  for  show. 
Of  course  we  did  not  enjoy  these  tri- 
umphs, these  results  of  "  working  our 
farm  with  idees  "  —  oh,  no ! 

Even  the  big  hill  whose  barren    sandy 


7<5      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

top  was  everywhere  visible,  which  every- 
body said  could  never  "  be  seeded  down," 
is  covered  to  its  very  top-tip  with  ten- 
derest  grasses  and  sweetest  clovers ; 
and  often  of  a  summer  morning  we  see 
Pampas  standing  there,  high  against  the 
clear  northern  sky,  serene  with  his  sat- 
isfaction over  his  dewy  breakfast  —  "a 
statue    to   our   spunk,"    Lou   says. 

And  then,  waiting  for  May  days  and 
corn-planting,  we  began  work  in  earnest 
In  our  brief  dresses,  in  which  Louise 
said  she  felt  "so  spry,"  rejoicing  in 
loose  bands  and  in  shoulder-straps  and 
blouse  waists  to  a  degree  that  would 
have  delighted  Miss  Phelps,  we  shoul- 
dered  our   axes   and   our    dinner-pails,    a 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmi7ig.      yy 

la  lords  of  creation,  and  went  over  to 
our  bit  of  forest  to  get  up  "  the  year's 
wood,"  after  the  manner  of  the  model 
householder. 

I  will  allow  you  just  a  moment  in 
which  to  fancy  us  vainly  attacking  huge 
logs,  and  then  tell  vou  we  were  simply 
thinning  out  the  young  trees.  It  really 
was  not  a  difficult  task  to  fell  them. 
Afterwards  we  constructed  a  couple  of 
rude,  strong  saw-bucks,  and  sawing  dili- 
gently, day  after  day,  we  at  last  had  a 
supply  for  months  piled  neatly  in  the 
green  recesses. 

After  that  came  fence-mending,  yes, 
and  io^nce^makijig,  for  we  were  obliged 
to  have  sixty  rods  of  entirely  new  fence. 


y8      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Fa^nnhig, 

We  found  that  our  own  woods  had  been 
thoroughly  denuded  of  "  rail  timber,"  and 
further,  that  even  in  this  comparatively 
new  country,  a  board  fence  already  had 
become  cheaper  than  one  of  rails,  when 
it  came  to  buying  materials  outright. 

This  was  the  result  of  Lou's  inquiries 
at  the  village  lumber  yards. 

"  And,"  added  she,  "  the  fences,  even 
at  these  rates,  will  cost  almost  as  much 
as  the  land  did.  Just  think  of  it !  Well, 
now,  there  is  a  country  saw-mill  three 
miles  up  north ;  of  this  fact  a  man  would 
take  advantage." 

"  And   why  not  we  ?  " 

The  next  day,  in  our  new,  gay  little 
wagon  we  set  off  over  the  hills.      There 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      yg 

was  a  quizzical  light  gleaming  in  the 
black  eyes  of  the  proprietor  of  the  mill 
as  he  came  forward  to  listen  to  our 
inquiries ;  but  it  mattered  little  to  us  — 
we  had  become  accustomed  to  quizzical 
liorhts.  He  soon  found  that  we  meant 
"  cash  down,"  and  we  found  that  by 
buying  logs  and  hiring  them  sawed  we 
should  compass  a  saving  of  fifteen  dollars. 
"  And  now,  Dolly,"  said  Louise  on  the 
way  home,  "  I  shall  draw  those  boards 
myself.  Those  mill-men  look  good-na- 
tured—  they  will  load  for  me.  You  and 
I  together  can  lift  off  the  wagon-box, 
and  I  have  studied  out  how  to  lengthen 
the  reach  with  a  false  one.  I  can  ride 
nicely  on  the    reach  going,   and    on    the 


8o      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

boards  coming  back.  Nothing  shall  be 
wanting  on  my  part,  Dolly." 

It  is  not  pertinent  to  the  history  of 
this  experiment  how  people  stared  to. 
see  little  Louise  riding  by  upon  a  wagon- 
reach.  She  took  care,  wisely,  to  look 
very  pretty,  and  I  believe  it  was  thought 
rather  "  cunning "  than  otherwise ;  she 
and  her  yellow-striped  wagon  and  her 
spirited  roan  horse  were  all  upon  such  a 
little  scale,  "  and  all  of  us  sandy-com- 
plexioned,"  she  laughingly  said  as  she 
started. 

I  worried  greatly  for  fear  she  would 
fall  off  "  the  reach,"  but  by  noon  she 
was  safely  back  with  her  little  load  of 
boards.     Encouraged   by  her   brave    smile 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      8i 

[  ventured  to  think  we  might  unload. 
And   we   did. 

"  No  harder  than  dancing  several  hours, 
Dolly,"  Lou  said  cheerily.  "  And  saving 
our  money  serves  much  the  same  pur- 
pose as  the  music,  don't  it }  " 

Next  day  ditto,  and  the  next,  and  the 
next. 

"  There  !  "  said  the  little  teamster,  as 
she  surveyed  the  boards  scientifically 
scattered  up  and  down  the  lines  of 
future  fence.  "  There,  Dolly,  we  have 
saved  the  twenty  dollars  with  which  be- 
comingly to  accept  the  inevitable  —  a 
woman  ca7inot  dig  post-holes  and  set 
posts ! " 

No,  indeed! 


82      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

The  post-setting  accomplished,  we 
bouo:ht  our  fence-nails,  and  with  our 
hammers  and  saws  went  out  to  build 
fence.  We  built  it,  too,  notwithstanding 
masculine  wisdom  assured  us  we  could 
not.  We  lifted  the  boards  by  uniting 
strength,  I  held  them  against  the  post 
close  to  Lou's  accurate  red  chalk  marks 
—  it  is  Lou  who  has  the  correct  eye  — 
and  she  drove  the  nails.  During  which 
we  found  that  the  fifteen  dollars  saved 
was  the  margin  for  straight  edges,  uni- 
form width,  freedom  from  bark,  immu- 
nity from  knot-holes,  and  the  general 
superiority  of  art  over  nature,  town  over 
country. 

We  also  took    down     and    relaid     the 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.      8j 

entire  roadside  fence,  not  accomplishing 
all  this,  of  course,  without  countless 
resting-spells ;  the  fibre  that  endures,  the 
power  of  giving  blow  and  bearing  strain, 
is  of  painfully  slow  growth.  We  did  it, 
as  everything  else,  little  by  little. 

The  fence-mending  done,  we  attempted 
another  bit  of  thrift.  We  harnessed 
Pampas  to  the  little  wagon,  for  which 
we  ourselves  had  constructed  a  light 
extra  box  to  place  atop  the  other,  and 
then  we  drove  up  and  down  our  estate 
—  Lou  practicing  in  the  art  of  stand- 
ing to  drive,  the  while  —  through  the 
woods  and  through  the  grubby  residue 
which  John  couldn't  plow,  cutting  our 
wagon-roads     as    we     went,     often     both 


8^^      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmi^tg. 

jumping  out  to  roll  aside  a  log,  rolling 
and  blocking,  rolling  and  blocking  until 
we  had  conquered,  and  thoroughly 
"  picked  up "  the  place,  bringing  back 
to  the  door  load  after  load  of  sticks 
and   limbs   and   chips   for   summer  wood. 

There  were  three  acres  of  this  una- 
vailable residue.  While  we  were  load- 
ing, we  often  paused  to  contemplate  it. 
It  was  covered  by  a  growth  of  white 
oak  grubs ;  old  stumps  and  knotty  logs 
had  been  rolled  down  upon  it,  and  it 
had  been  made  a  dumping  ground  for 
stones  and  for  the  mountainous  piles  of 
brush   from   former    clearings. 

"  Here  Dolly  dear,  is  our  knittiug 
work !  "  Lou   said  one  day. 


"  Knittinsf-work." 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      8y 

Just  that  it  was  for  two  years.  When 
no  other  work  pressed,  we  "logged." 
That  is,  we  cut  down  grubs  —  trimming 
up  the  tallest  to  mend  fence  with  —  and 
piled  the  brush,  old  and  new,  around 
the  logs,  dragging  the  stumps  into  piles 
of  two  and  three  by  means  of  Pampas, 
and  a  big  chain ;  many  a  summer  night 
have  we  tended  our  big  bonfires  over 
there,  with  pussy-cat  frisking  about  our 
steps ;  twice  have  we  had  the  whole 
place  on  fire  and  the  neighborhood  out 
to  save  the  fences  and  put  out  the  flames 
—  what  we  do  not  know  and  cannot  do 
in  the  way  of  "  whipping  out "  a  fire  is 
really  not  worth  any  woman's  while. 
In   fact,   our   daily   life    those    first   years 


88     How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

was  so  truly  primitive,  and  seemed  such 
a  bit  of  delightful  outlawry  from  the 
conventional  house-life  of  our  sex,  that 
Louise   often    said : 

"  We  might  as  well  be  gypsies,  Dolly, 
and  live  in  the  hedge  ! " 

Meantime,  other  things  were  happen- 
ing. We  had  tried  a  bit  of  the  news- 
paper gardening:  Louise  and  I  had 
agreed  we  would  try  almost  everything. 
It  was  a  proud  day  when  Louise,  with 
me  standing  by  to  see  her,  first  set  her 
little  sturdy  woman's  foot  on  the  spade 
and  slowly  drove  it  home  and  as  slowly 
brought  up  and  turned  over  a  big  slice  of 
earth.    She  knocked  it  to  pieces  as  it  fell. 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      8g 

''That  dirt  is  otirs,  Dolly,"  she  said 
gaily.  I  looked  at  it  vaguely,  yet  some- 
how feeling  very  rich. 

So  we  had  a  bit  of  garden  ground 
made  ready,  while  the  farmers  about  us 
sat  by  their  fires  in  the  belief  that  it 
was  yet  winter;  and,  presently,  underneath 
a  thin  coverlet  of  straw,  and  the  light 
roof  of  some  loose  cornstalks,  up  and 
down  the  sunny  south  side  of  the  se- 
lected o:arden  site,  we  had  lettuces  and 
peas  and  onions  growing  greenly,  right 
in  the  midst  of  snow-storms.  It  was  a 
pretty  sight,  after  a  light  April  snow, 
to  run  up  there  and  take  a  peep  in  and 
see  them  all  smiling  up  at  us  with 
such    a   live,   cheery,   undaunted   look,  as 


go      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

if  to  say,  "  We  are  very  comfortable, 
thank  you,  and  as  busy  as  we  can  be !  " 
It  made  us  cheery.  We  were  Hke  two 
children.  Every  day  we  hovered  about 
this  first  gardening,  this  premature  bit 
of  summer,  which  we  had  evoked  as 
from  fairy-land.  It  was  such  a  wonder- 
ful thing  to  us,  as  wonderful  as  the  tel- 
egraph, to  ask  a  question  of  Nature  — 
a  question  wrapped  up  in  a  tiny  brown 
seed,  or  a  brown  bulb,  or  a  little  with- 
ered, wrinkled  bean  —  and  be  answered 
thus. 

But  another  development  in  our  af- 
fairs was  not  so  encouraging.  Pampas, 
upon  acquaintance,  was  proving  to  be  an 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Inarming,      gi 

extreme  conservative,  who  preferred  that 
things  should  run  on  in  the  old  ruts. 
He  had  been  born  in  the  purple;  and 
as  soon  as  he  learned  that  he  had  prob- 
ably become  involved  for  life  in  the 
problem  of  woman's  independence,  his 
discontent  threatened  us  serious  trouble. 
Having  been  accustomed  to  a  town  car- 
riage-house he  did  not  take  kindly  to 
our  rustic  accommodations,  althouorh  his 
good  breeding,  while  he  supposed  himself 
merely  on  a  visit,  led  him  to  accept 
them  courteously ;  but  of  late  we  had 
been  wakened,  and  lain  trembling  to  hear 
him  pawing  and  knocking  on  the  sides 
of  his  stable  in  the  dead  of  night  —  our 
horse  —  what   were    we    to   do  with    him.? 


g2      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

"  I  will  whip  him  for  that,"  Louise 
said   at   last. 

He  had  never  drawn  any  vehicle  save 
a  light  phaeton,  or  worn  any  but  the 
daintiest  trappings,  and  he  hated  our 
harness,  and  never  would  accept  the 
bits  without  a  protest;  and  of  late  he 
had  shown  his  contempt  for  our  pretty 
wagon  by  a  series  of  short  runs  back 
and  forth  whenever  he  was  put  in  the 
thills ;  and  now  he  was  resorting  to  sud- 
den jumps,  and  to  standing  straight 
upon  his  hind  feet  in  the  desperate 
struggle  to  free  himself. 

"  I  will  whip  him  for  this,  too !  "  said 
Louise  one  day,  after  dismounting  to  go  to 
his  head  and  lead  him  on  for  the  seventh 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      pj 

time,  from  the  load  of  wood  which  he 
had  vainly  tried  by  rearing  and  plung- 
ing to  overturn.  I  looked  at  his  ugly 
mouth  champing  the  bits  so  restively, 
and  at  his  unloving  eye,  and  I  fancied 
little  brief  Louise  whipping  him !  I 
should  have  laughed  had  I  not  been  so 
fearful  she  would  do  as  she  said  —  that 
being  a  habit   she  has. 

One  day  when  he  wouldn't  "back," 
she  kept  her    word. 

She  jumped  down  from  the  wagon, 
went  to  his  head,  led  him  out  into  an 
open  space,  told  me  to  come  along,  and 
throwing  off  her  sun-bonnet,  took  the 
whip. 

"  Now   back,  Pampas  !  back  !  " 


g4      How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

Not  a  step.  Nothing  but  that  fierce 
champing 

"  Back,  I  say !  back ! "  She  tries  to 
force  him  back  with  all  her  strength  — 
and  her  white,  firm  arm  and  shoulder 
have  strength.  But  Pampas  champs  and 
plants  his  feet,  and  then  tries  to  make  a 
little  run  at  her,  and  I  cry  out.  She 
crushes  him  back,  the  veins  standing  out 
on    her   little  brown  fists  like  cords. 

She  is  white  enough  now :  "  Get  into 
the  wagon,  Dolly,"  she  says,  without 
looking  round,  "  and   pull  on  the  lines !  " 

I  clamber  in,  and  while  she  tries  again, 
I  pull,  and  cry,  "  Back  !  back ! "  with  all 
my  weak  voice.  It  is  an  excited  feminine 
shriek,  and   it  sounds  as    if    I  was  afraid 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      p5 

and  was  about  to  break  down  and  cry, 
when  in  reality  I  am  as  brave  and 
as  angry  as    Louise. 

She  tells  him  once  more.  Then  she 
forces  the  bits  back,  and  she  raises  the 
whip,  and  she  brings  it  down  upon  his 
breast  fiercely  and  fast,  and  cries,  "  Back, 
Pampas ! "  Pampas  rears ;  the  taint  of 
mustang  blood  shows  itself  now;  he  raises 
her  clear  from  the  ground,  but  he  can 
neither  knock  her  down  nor  shake  her 
off — oh!    how  ugly  he   looks. 

The  whip  comes  swift  and  fierce. 
"  Back  !  back  there  !  back  !  "  And  I  am 
as  angry  as  she.  I  don't  care  if  we 
both  do  get  killed,  and  I  pull  and  she 
cries  to  him,  and    all     at    once   he   does 


g6     How  Two  Girls  Triea  Farming. 

back  —  runs  back  swift  and  hard.  She 
holds  fast.  "  Brace  yourself  if  you  can !  " 
and  then  we  bring  up  against  the  fence, 
and  I  sit  down  suddenly,  and  then  am 
thrown  forward  over  on  the  dash-board. 
He  plunges,  but  little  Lou  holds  him 
there.  She  can  hold  him.  Then,  after 
a  little,  she  allows  him  to  come  forward, 
a  few  steps  at  a  time,  breathing  hard 
and  stepping  high.  He  stands  and  paws, 
and  looks,  oh,  how   furious ! 

Lou  takes  breath  a  moment.  "  This 
never'll  do ! "  she  says,  and  tells  me  to 
get  out.  She  springs  in  while  I  try  to 
hold  him  as  she  did ;  he  evidently  thinks 
he  can  trample  me  down. 

"  Now,  don't  be  frightened  !  "  she  says 


^  ■ 

■  ^>^?w?''^^?-^^i^-? 

-    f "' . 

.'./     ^  '  •..•.■ 

V*          ^  •.■^ 

Pampas  shows  his  mustang  blood. 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,      gg 

with  a  sudden  sweet  smile  at  me.  "The 
harness  is  strong,  and  I  can  hold  him; 
let  go  now !  " 

I  try  to  let  go,  and  he  gives  a 
plunge,  nearly  knocking  me  over,  and 
shoots  out  at  the  open  gate,  just  as 
Lou  meant.  Up  the  road  they  go,  Lou 
bare-headed,  her  golden  fleece  of  hair 
floating  straight  behind  her.  I  can  see 
her  whipping  him  up  the  long  hill. 
He  plunges  —  I  can  see  the  long  bounds 
of  the  wagon  —  kicks,  breaks  into  a 
run  again,  and  the  next  minute  they 
are  out  of  sight,  and  the  Kromers  all 
come  out  to  the  gate  to  look.  I  can 
hear  them  for  a  little  while  over  on  the 
other     road,     the     wagon      rattling     and 


100    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

bounding  once  or   twice,  and  then   there 
is    nothing  more    to    be   heard. 

They  are  gone  an  hour.  I  try  to 
get  dinner,  but  I  cannot  see,  for  tears. 
I  let  one  of  our  plates  fall  and  break. 
I  let  the  meat  burn.  I  wring  my  hands 
and  walk  the  floor.  At  last  I  am  just 
tying  on  my  sun-bonnet  to  go  and  see 
what  I  can  find,  when  suddenly  I  think 
I  hear  wheels.  I  run  to  the  door.  I 
did  hear  wheels.  It  is  Louise,  coming 
the  other  way.  They  have  evidently 
been  round  the  big  square,  of  a  thous- 
and acres,  more  or  less.  Pampas  is  walk- 
ing meekly.  He  is  covered  with  sweat 
and    foam  —  such    a  sorry-looking   beast ! 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.    loi 

Lou  sits  on  the  seat,  serene,  but  white 
and    large-eyed. 

She  smiles  to  me  as  they  pause  in  the 
gateway.  She  composedly  backs  him  a 
little.  Then  they  come  on  again  a  few 
steps,  then  she  stops  him.  She  backs 
him  again. 

"  See  !  don't  he  know  his  master  ?  " 

He  looks  so  meek  and  sorry.  I  think 
he  would  like  to  lay  his  nose  against 
my  cheek,  but  she  will  not  let  me  pet 
him,  not  ever  so  little. 

How  we  congratulate  ourselves !  for 
the  neighborhood  has  for  the  last  fort- 
night plainly  been  of  the  opinion  that 
"  them  two  girls  have  no  business  with 
a  horse ! " 


T02    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

But  the  next  morning,  while  we  are 
at  breakfast,  we  hear  the  old  rino:ine 
hoof-blows    upon   the   side   of    the     barn. 

Louise  jumps  up  and  takes  down  thc 
whip,  and  I  follow  her.  It  is  very  dread- 
ful to  me  that  we  two  gentle,  intelligent 
girls,  cannot  coax  and  win  and  govern 
a  horse  according  to  theory.  Pampas 
starts  as  Lou  unlatches  the  stable  door. 
He  turns  his  head.  He  sees  her,  sees 
the  whip,  and  he  —  yes,  he  actually 
falls    upon   his   knees. 

Lou  nods  at  him  meaningly,  lays 
down  the  whip,  tells  him  to  get  up 
which  he  does,  tells  him  to  go  to  eat- 
ing, which  he  does. 

"  There,   old    fellow ! "    she    says,    and 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    loj 

then  it  is  her  turn  to  tremble.  She 
turns  to  the  fresh  air,  leans  against  the 
stable  door  a  moment,  white  and  sick. 

After  this,  for  nearly  a  week,  Pam- 
pas trembles  when  he  hears  her  coming. 
Once  or  twice  he  has  to  be  shown  the 
whip  at  a  time  when  his  memory  bids 
fair  to  fail  him  concerning  the  art  of 
backing,  but  the  seriousness  of  the  trouble 
is  over  with ;  and  at  last  I  am  permitted 
to  pet  him  again. 

Yes,  it  is  very  dreadful  to  me  that  we 
cannot  coax  and  win  and  govern  a  horse 
according  to  theory.  '  I  cannot  reconcile 
the  fact  with  my  cherished  traditions, 
with  my  ideals  of  the  horse  —  but  it  is 
a    fact  that    we    are  disappointed  in    the 


104   How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

"  noble  creature."     It  is  a  fact   that    Lou 
does  not  love  her    horse.      Perhaps    it  is 
because  she  does  not    respect    him.     She 
says  he   is    not    frank,    or    generous,    or 
sunny,  that  he    is    selfish.     He    calls    to 
her  when    he  hears  her  step,  for    an    ear 
of  corn,  but    he    fails    to    look    glad,    or 
turn  his    head    lovingly  at    the    touch    of 
her  hand;     perhaps    he  is  conscious  that 
she    disapproves  of     his    wastefulness     in 
eating    his    hay.     To    me  he   is    kind    in 
a  certain  lofty  manner.     For  me  he    will 
bend  his  strong  neck  and    patiently   wait 
while    I    awkwardly    pull     his     head-stall 
into  position.     For  Lou  he  will  not  stoop 
that    neck    an    inch.     Once,    when    Lou 
came  home  sick,  and  I   tremblingly  took 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    105 

my  life  in  my  hands  and  led  him  to 
pasture,  he  kindly  waited  —  yes,  waited 
intelligently  —  while  I  got  all  the  bars 
down,  and  then  carefully  stepped  over 
the  pile,  turned  and  held  his  head  low 
for  me  to  pull  off  the  halter  —  then 
was  off.  With  his  master,  it  is  his  cus- 
tom to  paw  and  curvet  while  the  first 
bar  is  being  shoved,  then,  in  a  flying 
whirl,  to  alight,  at  great  peril  to  the  sun- 
bonneted  head,  on  the  other  side  where, 
still  curvetting,  he  is  held  until  the  halter 
is  slipped,  when  he  is  off  and  away ; 
and  standing  in  the  back  door,  trembling 
for  Lou's  safety,  I  hear  his  heels  swiftly 
beating  the  grassy  hillside  in  the  wild 
prairie    gallop    none   of     the    neighbors, 


io6    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

horses  ever  indulge  in,  but  I  do  not 
breathe  until  Lou  comes  in  sight  down 
the  lane. 

No,  we  cannot  make  a  pet  and  com- 
panion of  our  horse.  1  am  afraid  of 
him  —  Lou  is  merely  his  master.  She 
is  his  master.  In  the  matter  of  Pampas 
she  makes  no  concessions  to  her  wom- 
anhood. He  does  not  stand  in  his  sta- 
ble in  winter-time  until  he  is  unman- 
agable.  No  matter  how  electric  the 
air,  each  morning  he  is  led  out  and 
exercised,  and  I  stand  at  the  pantry 
window  with  my  heart  in  my  mouth, 
while  he  flies  in  swift  circles  about  the 
hooded  little  figure  which  urges  him  to 
still   wilder  evolutions.      She   never   puts 


Hozv  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.    lo^ 

off  going  to  town  because  it  is  keen  and 
frosty,  and  Pampas  will  be  sure  to  "  act 
bad."  Trembling,  but  determined  she 
shall  not  meet  her  fate  alone,  I  prepare 
to  go  too,  braving  the  penalty  of  a 
stiff  neck  for  days  to  come,  in  my  ner- 
vous anxiety  lest  a  team  came  up  behind 
us  unawares,  sending  Pampas  into  the 
air  like  an  Indian  arrow,  and  off,  often 
to  be  stopped  only  by  reining  him 
straight  out  of  the  road  into  a  fence 
corner.  The  solicitous  men  of  the  team 
behind,  stop,  alight,  come  to  our  rescue, 
but  Lou  calmly  puts  aside  all  proffers  of 
assistance,  until  it  comes  to  be  a  recog- 
nized thing  on  the  road,  that  one  is  to 
drive    quietly  on,  no  matter  what  trouble 


ig8   How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

"  those  girls "  appear  to  be  in.  And 
then,  when  we  start  for  home !  ah, 
that  moment  when  I  sit  with  crowding 
heartbeats,  while  Lou,  having  untied  our 
pawing,  tossing  steed,  gets  to  my  side, 
reins  in  hand,  the  best  and  quickest 
way  she  can.  The  men  standing  about 
offer  to  hold  him,  but  she  will  have  no 
one  at  his  head  —  she  will  not  accus- 
tom him  to  that.  What  "  silver  threads  " 
I  have,  I  owe,  I  think,  to  beholding 
Lou  clambering  about  over  on  the  thills, 
now  to  fasten  up  the  check-rein  which 
the  tossing  head  has  unloosed,  now  to 
recover  the  "  lines  "  which  he  has  jerked 
or  whisked  from  her  hand.  I  am  never 
at  rest   after  she    sets    forth.     Once   she 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    log 

accompanied  her  horse  in  a  mad  leap 
across  the  railroad  track,  under  the 
very  nose  of  the  rushing  locomotive ; 
once  he  whirled  and  threw  her  from 
the  wagon,  but  she  was  picked  up  with 
the  reins  wound  securely  round  her 
little  fist,  and  drove  home  alone,  "  black 
and  blue "  with  bruises,  yet  still  master. 
But  she  does  not  love  Pampas  —  nor 
Pampas  her. 

By  this  time  the  money  capital  of 
the  enterprise  had  become  entirely  ex- 
hausted, and  we  were  left  dependent 
upon  the  butter  and  eggs  of  our  plan. 
We  met  the  issue  cheerfully.  During 
our  first  week  at  cousin  Janet's  we  had 


no    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

found  that  these  staples  were  not  going 
to  bring  us  any  such  prices  as  we  had 
counted  upon.  We  could  only  trust 
that  there  might  be  such  a  resource  as 
making  good  the  deficiency  in  prices 
by  the  production  of  larger  quantities. 
We  experimented  with  the  feed  of  our 
hens  —  our  fascinating  hens  —  and  at 
last  we  did  succeed  in  bringing  what 
Louise  called  "  a  perfect  storm  of  eggs." 
Yes  —  our  fascinatins:  hens.  For  we 
were  perfectly  absorbed  in  our  pursuit 
—  each  day,  each  simple  busy  day  was 
an  enthusiasm.  To  rise  betimes,  to  have 
breakfast  just  ready  when  Lou  came 
in  from  milking,  and  meantime  to  have 
skimmed    the    cream,  and  fed    the    hens 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    iii 

—  why  we  put  both  heart  and  mind  into 
it.  The  busy  days  were  long  with  pleas- 
ure—  the  pleasure  of  successful  toils. 
Perhaps,  one  must  feel  this  way  about 
any  labor  to  make  it  a  satisfying  success. 
Even  our  hens  were  fascinating,  as  I 
said.  They  were  the  brightest,  busiest, 
cheerfulest  little  bodies,  complaisant  indi- 
viduals, interesting  acquaintances,  every 
one.  I  knew  the  peculiar  crow,  and 
cackle,  and  cluck  of  each  member  of  my 
small  army  of  happy  stay-at-homes,  whom 
the  neighbors  blessed  and  wondered  at 
alternately.  Mr.  Kromer  and  Mr.  Hooper 
sowed  their  great  wheat  fields  close  up 
on  either  side  of  our  narrow  strip  of  a 
farm,  and  went  home  and  slept  serenely, 


112    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

and  we  ourselves  neither  picketed  our 
garden  nor  stood  guard  over  tomatoes 
and  strawberries.  After  the  wheat  was 
harvested  and  drawn  into  the  barn,  Mr. 
Hooper  came  to  say  that  we  "  might  turn 
our  hens  in."  Being  thrifty,  we  were  duly 
grateful.  We  should  need  to  buy  no 
more  corn  and  "  middlings."  The  wheat 
field  would  subsist  them  for  weeks.  The 
eggs  would   be  "  a  clear  gain." 

So  we  went  out  and  invited  our  vir- 
tuous and  now -to -be -rewarded  fowls,  an 
easy  matter  since  they  generally  formed 
into  a  long  silent  pattering  procession  at 
the  tail  of  my  gown  whenever  I  appeared. 
Little  and  big,  chattering  as  they  went, 
they  followed  us  up  to  the  field,  up  and 


A  fashionable  ''train." 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    ii^ 

in  —  and  also  out  and  back.  Thrice  we 
went,  and  thrice  we  returned  —  we  and 
our  hens. 

"  They  actually  don't  know  enough  to 
forage ! "  said  Lou,  half  vexed.  "  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  such  hens  ?  " 

We  were  determined  to  avail  ourselves 
of  that  wheat  —  it  meant  dollars  and 
cents  to  us  little  farmers.  We  laid  a 
plan,  a  real  woman's  plan,  and  went  to 
bed,  to  rise  next  morning  before  light.  I 
went  into  the  domicil  of  my  wondering 
little  family,  and  quietly  placing  my  two 
hands  on  their  plump  unsuspecting  sides, 
(I  could  walk  up  to  any  one  of  them 
in  the  broad  day-light  of  out-of-doors  and 
lift  them  in    my   hands,    to  be    rewarded 


tt6    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

with  a  soft  nestle-down  and  a  little  pert 
side  look  from  a  bright  eye,  both  mo- 
tions dainty  as  a  canary's)  I  took  them 
from  the  roost,  and  handed  them,  one 
by  one,  outside  to  Lou  who  slipped  them 
into  a  covered  bushel  basket.  When  the 
basket  was  full  we  two  thrifty  farmers  took 
it  up  by  the  ears,  tugged  it  up  to  the 
wheat  field,  climbed  the  fence,  lifted  over 
our  heavy,  fluttering,  frightened  burden, 
and  going  quite  over  the  hill,  emptied 
them  out  into  the  soft,  dewy  dark.  "  They 
had  had  no  breakfast,"  we  reasoned, 
"  and  of  course  would  pick  up  the  wheat  ; 
their  voices  would  call  the  rest;  once 
wonted  and  unfed  elsewhere,  they  would 
take    possession,    and    with     the    money 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    iiy 

saved  we  would  buy  a  handsome  blanket 
for  Pampas." 

Alas,  and  alas  !  Stumbling  back  in  the 
dark,  before  we  reached  the  fence,  sped 
past  us  on  a  winged  run,  screaming  at 
the  top  of  their  voices,  our  hens ;  and 
there  they  stood  at  the  door  of  their 
house  on  our  arrival,  a  frightened  hud- 
dling heap,  waiting  to  be  let  in  — "  hope- 
lessly well  fed,"  Lou  said. 

They  were  well-fed  —  we  fed  them 
"  with  idees  " — that  is,  we  fed  them  chem- 
ically— but  the  fine,  chopped  green  veg- 
etables, now  lettuce,  now  cabbage,  now 
onions,  now  fruit,  the  coarse  meats 
bought  at  market,  the  varied  grains,  with 
constant  "  middlings  "  stirred   up  with  hot 


ii8    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

water  —  now  with  a  dust  of  cayenne 
pepper,  now  of  salt,  now  of  sulphur,  the 
constant  supply  of  plaster  and  bones, 
and  the  constant  supply  of  fresh  water, 
brought  us  the  desired  result  —  eggs  the 
year  round,  a  supply  in  winter  as  well 
as  in  summer.  To  be  sure  we  earned 
them,  but  we  had  not  committed  the 
fatal  mistake  of  supposing  we  should  get 
things  on  our  farm  without  earning 
them.  From  first  to  last  we  have  de- 
spised that  man's  way  of  setting  down 
and  making  a  calculation  of  the  interest 
on  the  money  invested  in  the  farm  and 
the  tools,  and  the  stock,  and  the  wages 
of  himself  and  his  team  per  day,  and 
then,  after   adding    up    the  yield    of    his 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    iig 

farm,  declaring  that  one  was  making 
nothing,  but  really  running  behind.  As 
if  a  happy  daily  life  were  not  the  very 
best  one  could  get  out  of  money  and 
labor,  any  way  ! 

Our  butter  experience  was  not  quite 
so  encouraging.  Knowing  it  costs  no  more 
to  keep  the  good  cow  than  the  poor 
one,  we  had  paid  an  extra  price  and 
had  secured  one  of  extra  excellence, 
upon  whom  our  meal  and  "  middlings " 
were  not  wasted:  gentle  Maggie,  with 
her  little  Maggie  of  still  more  precious 
blood  in  the  stall  adjoining.  Louise 
lavished  upon  her  all  the  affection  that 
by   right   of   romance    should    have    gone 


120    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

to  Pampas ;  and  Maggie  returned  it 
with  all  that  intelligence  and  attach- 
ment Pampas  did  not  show  —  just  as 
dogs  have  disappointed  us  while  cats 
never  have. 

She  was  all  that  a  short-horned,  yel- 
low-skinned, slender-footed,  black-nosed 
little  cow  can  be ;  and  we  never  blamed 
her  because  our  butter  brought  us  only 
twenty-five,  twenty,  eighteen,  fifteen,  twelve 
and  a  half  cents  per  pound  ;  such  is  the 
descending  scale  from  March  to  June. 

We  make,  I  have  been  persuaded,  the 
veritable  *'  gilt-edged  "  butter  of  the  Bos- 
ton and  Philadelphia  markets.  It  is 
sweet,  fragrant,  sparkling,  golden-tinted, 
daintily  salted,  and  daintily  put  up  ;    but 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    121 

even  from  the  most  fastidious  private 
buyers  we  never  have  received  above 
thirty  cents  per  pound,  and  during  the 
greater  portion  of  the  summer  have  sold 
it  for  fifteen  cents,  and  twelve  cents,  the 
same  price  which  Mrs.  Kromer  receives 
for  her  soft,  lardy-looking  rolls  ;  perhaps 
that  is  the  most  aggravating  part  of  it ! 
The  finer  grades  of  butter,  it  seems,  are 
not  appreciated  by  the  western  citizen 
and  his  family.  Making  inquiries  in 
Detroit  and  Chicago,  we  learn  there  is 
no  special  trade  in  these  extra  grades, 
and  that,  if  offered,  they  could  not  be 
placed  at  anything  like  eastern  prices. 
And  while  eastern  families  are  ac- 
customed   to    pay    from    thirty    to    forty 


122    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

cents  per  dozen  for  eggs,  we  have  never, 
even  in  winter,  secured  over  twenty-five 
cents  for  the  fresh-laid,  while  in  the 
plenteous  summer  time  we  sell  for  ten 
cents. 

In  due  time  also  we  found  that  our 
black-cap  raspberries  would  reall}^  go  for 
ten  cents  per  quart,  and  the  bulk  of  our 
strawberries  for  the  same.  We  aban- 
doned forever  the  "  small  fruits  "  item  of 
our  plan,  so  far  as  income  was  con- 
cerned. We  have  our  Wilson  and 
Jocunda  beds,  where,  wuth  many  a  back- 
ache and  many  a  dizzy  headache,  with 
hotly  glowing  brow  and  scorched  hands 
—  since  strawberries  to  be  spicy  and 
sweet   must    be   picked  dry  in    the   mid- 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    12^ 

day  sunshine  —  we  grow  those  great, 
rich-hearted  scarlet  and  crimson  berries, 
berries  which  are  chronicled  as  marvels 
by  grateful  editors,  berries  that  one 
must  need  slice  for  the  table;  but  they 
are  never  for  sale,  thank  you !  One 
must  pay  for  every  strawberry  one  raises 
its  full  money's  worth  in  labor,  nor  will 
strawberries   ever    be  cheaper. 

The  raspberries  are  more  satisfactory, 
the  needed  labor  coming  only  at  regular 
intervals.  Under  our  systematic  treat- 
ment, on  the  same  plantations  they  yield, 
year  after  year,  bountifully  and  uniformly, 
and  we  have  them  for  plentiful  use  the 
year  round,  as  farmers  have  apples  —  and 
how    those    farmers'   wives   with    nothing 


12^^   How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

but  apples  envy  us  —  and  we  can  them 
wholesale,  picking  them  by  the  pailful, 
cooking  them  in  a  great  boiler,  dipping 
them  with  a  big  dipper  into  great  stone 
jars  holding  three  or  four  gallons,  and 
sealing  up  with  the  sweet  and  winey 
crimson  lusciousness,  bird  songs  and 
dewy  mornings,  the  gold-and-rose  silences 
of  early,  lovely  August  dawns,  and  all  the 
pretty  pictures  of  the  little  upland  plan- 
tation with  its  tall  purple  canes,  each 
trellised  group  of  three  bending  greenly 
from  its  stout  bands,  black  with  ripe  fruit, 
starred  here  and  there  with  the  little 
white  hearts  where  the  birds  have  been 
breakfasting  —  the  birds  that  know  they 
are  welcome  and  often  pick  in  the  same 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.    12^ 

row  with  me,  conscious  that  I  am  aware 
it  is  they  who  keep  the  plantation  free 
from  bug,  fly  and  worm,  so  free  that  we 
do  not  even  know  what  species  of  crea- 
tures harm    raspberry  canes. 

So,  there  were  some  disappointments, 
yet  on  the  whole  an  encouraging  daily 
success.  We  doubtless  should  have  done 
better  had  our  land  lain  near  the  large 
thickly-settled  eastern  towns,  instead  of 
west.  But,  despite  all  short  comings 
in  the  way  of  market  prices,  we  two 
farmers  did,  by  cheerfully  ignoring  sev- 
eral of  the  items  mentioned  by  the  Labor 
Commission  as  among  the  necessities  of 
the  ordinary  family,  week   by  week,  make 


126    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmmg, 

both  ends  meet  —  perhaps  because  we 
sternly  balanced  accounts  every  week, 
nay,  every  day. 

For  our  very  own  personal  needs,  the 
little  Arcadian  income  would  really  have 
sufficed ;  but  there  always  came  up  some 
thing  to  be  purchased  which  we  had  not 
made  account  of :  the  pound  of  nails,  the 
pane  of  glass,  a  horseshoe  to  be  set,  a  bit 
of  repair  upon  wagon  or  tools,  the  road 
tax,  the  pleasant  little  expenses  for  com- 
pany. It  was,  indeed,  quite  a  close  affair 
those  first  years.  Even  in  the  early 
weeks  we  dismissed  the  idea  of  smoked 
ham  and  dainty  sausage,  and  devoted 
"  Pin-cushion  "    and  "  Roly-poly  "    to   the 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming.    12*/ 

payment   of  taxes    and  the    discharge   of 
debt  for   hired   labor. 

Ah,  Roly-poly — pink-nosed  and  fat  Roly- 
poly  of  the  twinkling  legs,  predecessor  of 
a  long  line  of  Roly-polys,  each  a  pet 
in  his  own  time  and  place  —  shall  we 
ever  forget  that  soft  dark  spring  midnight 
when  we  were  suddenly  wakened,  how  or 
by  what  we  knew  not !  At  last  I  became 
conscious  of  a  strange  little  noise  out- 
side, under  the  window. 

"  Hark  !  "  said  Lou,  at  the  same  instant, 
sitting  up. 

I  harked.  After  due  waiting,  another 
little  scrambling  sound,  together  with  a 
low   happy  grunt. 

Lou    groaned. 


128    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

"  Those   pigs  are    out,  Dolly." 

Yes,  unmistakably. 

"  Quietly,  now,"  I  said,  as  when  all  was 
ready  we  unclosed  the  door  and  issued 
forth  —  each  bearing  a  pan  of  sour  milk, 
cream  and   all. 

I  was  proud  of  my  forethought  in 
that  little  matter.  Lou,  who  would  have 
taken  a  lasso  and  walked  fearlessly  into 
a  herd  of  Pampas'  wild  relatives,  was 
helpless  here.  She  was  content  to  do 
my  bidding  meekly. 

"  P^ggY'  piggy  • "  ^  called  cheerfully. 
"  Come,  piggy  !  " 

Guilty  piggy !  He  jumped,  barked 
like  a  little  dog,  and  I  dimly  saw  and 
distinctly  heard   him   scampering  around 


xi  x»in.iiii;iht  AdveiitLire. 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    iji 

the  corner  of  the  house.  But  I  was  only 
too  glad  to  discern  thus  that  only  one  was 
taking  an  outing.  Carefully  bearing  my 
pan  of  milk,  I  went  swiftly  around  the 
other  corner,  and  met  him  at  the  back 
door.  Off  he  ran,  but  I  ignored  him. 
I  calmly  set  my  pan  down  by  the  wood- 
pile, and  turned  my  back.  Presently,  I 
heard  the  little  waddling  form  approach- 
ing, nose  to  the  ground,  uttering  quick, 
delighted  little  grunts.  A  moment  more, 
and  the  naughty  pink  nose  was  in 
the  milk,  the  naughty  fore-paw  right  in 
the  middle  of  my  bright  new  milk  pan. 
Softly  I  turned.  Softly,  at  a  signal,  came 
Lou,  pouring  in  her  contribution  to  this 
feast  al  fresco. 


IJ2    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

Thus  reassured,  Piggy  forgot  fear  and 
put  in  both  fore-paws;  it  was  then  I 
softly  bent  and  seized  him,  grasping  his 
fat  little  body  with  both  hands  —  but  oh, 
the  muscle  of  even  a  small  pig,  the 
weight  of  the  solid  little  self!  he  strug- 
gled up,  down,  outward,  backward,  kicked, 
squealed  as  if  in  mortal  pain ;  but  I  was 
already  bearing  him  onward,  and  Lou, 
behind  me,  stumbling  over  the  pan  of 
milk  reached  helpfully  and  seized  —  not 
the  kicking  little  pig,  but  my  wrist, 
and  bearing  that  on  high,  almost  forc- 
ing me  to  let  go  the  pig,  squeezing  it 
unmercifully,  determined  to  not  lose  her 
hold,  kick  as  he  might,  I  both  laugh- 
ing  and   panting   to   the   extent   I    could 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    /jj 

not  speak  to  expostulate  or  explain,  we 
reached  the  pen  and  tossed  Master 
Roly-poly  over  in  beside  his  sleeping 
mate.  Then  we  restored  the  lifted  door, 
under  which  he  had  squeezed  through, 
to  its  place,  and  went  back  to  the  house, 
all  in  the  vague  dark  —  poor  Lou  so 
mortified  and  vexed  at  the  way  she  had 
helped,  that  she  would  not  speak  to  me 
until  the  middle  of  the  next  forenoon. 

Well,  to  go  back  a  little,  it  was  a 
busy  busy  spring ;  a  home  has  to  be 
begun  in  so  many  directions  at  once  — 
meadow,  field,  garden,  orchard,  flowers, 
and  shubbery.  Ah,  that  setting  of  trees ! 
With  us  "arbor  day"   stretched    through 


I 34-    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmmg, 

weeks;  what  with  pear,  apple,  peach, 
and  cherry,  evergreen,  lilac,  rose,  and 
locust,  to  say  nothing  of  the  vines  and 
canes.  I  confess  to  hours  when  Lou 
and  I  toiled  side  by  side  in  silence, 
digging  those  holes.  Nature  is  no  gallant. 
She  has  inexorable  laws  which  woman,  in 
common  with  man,  must  confront.  The 
spade  in  delicate  hands  must  needs  be 
driven  as  deep  as  the  horniest  palm  can 
thrust  it.  Protect  your  white  hands  as 
you  will,  if  you  labor  out-of-doors  there 
will  come  upon  them  brownness,  redness, 
and  freckle ;  there  will  be  cracks,  torn 
flesh,  "  slivers,"  what  not,  and  upon  your 
soft,  pink  palms,  callous,  blister,  and 
soreness  unendurable;  a  brown,  enlarged, 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    135 

useful,  and  strong  hand  will  be  one  of 
the  penalties  of  your  independence.  Also, 
my  graceful  sisters,  who  shall  essay  inde- 
pendence in  this  field,  your  slender  shoul- 
ders will  broaden,  you  will  affect  a  roomy 
bodice,  and  your  arms  will  lose  their 
tapering  contours.  As  compensation, 
you  will  come  into  possession  of  an  ex- 
quisite perception  of  the  purity  of  atmos- 
pheres, a  comfortable  disregard  of  changes 
in  the  weather,  an  appetite  for  fruits 
and  vegetables  and  nourishing  steaks, 
and  an  indifference  to  injurious  season- 
ings and  flavorings  —  you  can  walk  where 
you  will,  lift  what  you  will,  carry  for 
long  distances,  and  confidently  project 
fresh  undertakings. 


1^6    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

Our  tree-setting  and  early  gardening 
well  out  of  the  way,  came  our  first 
farming  proper  —  corn  planting.  In  con- 
sideration of  certain  "  suits "  made  for 
his  little  boys,  cousin  John  sent  over 
his  horses,  plow,  and  old  Donald.  Him 
we  coaxed  to  sit  under  a  budding  tree, 
and  ourselves  took  possession  of  the 
horses  and  plow.  I  had  been  longing 
to  show  Lou  what  I  could  do ;  and, 
truly  at  cousin  John's  I  had  not  thought 
plowing  so  very  terrible.  But  I  found 
our  stony,  hilly  field  somewhat  different 
from  his  soft,  level  garden  land.  To 
my  surprise  and  hers,  instead  of  walk- 
ing quietly  after  my  horses  along  my 
straight,   loamy   furrow,   as    I    had   meant 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    /j/ 

and  had  led  her  to  expect,  Lou  beheld  me 
pulled  this  way,  then  that,  dragged  over 
clods,  forced  into  long  strides,  the  plow 
now  lying  upon  its  side,  now  leaping 
along  the  surface,  until  the  trained  team 
turned  their  heads  in  mute  inquiry. 

We  can  plow,  as  I  said,  but  do  not 
think  it  advisable.  Dozens  of  farmers, 
especially  those  young  farmers  who  are 
bound  to  succeed,  do  not  scorn  to  do 
something  outside,  and  by  a  job  of  car- 
pentering, mason-work,  threshing-machine, 
or  the  like,  furnish  themselves  with 
many  comforts  otherwise  unattainable. 
So  I  trust  that  we  are  none  the  less 
legitimately  farmers  because  by  a  bit  of 
dressmaking,  or  fine  sewing,  we  hire  our 


ij8   How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

plowing  and  mowing,  and  whatever  other 
work  we  please. 

We  dragged  and  marked  the  four  acres 
without  assistance.  Then  we  proceeded 
with  another  item  of  "  that  newspaper 
foolery,"  which,  according  to  John,  no 
farmer  can  afford.  We  had  so  often 
been  assured  that  our  land  wouldn't 
grow  corn,  we  didn't  know  but  it  might 
be  so,  and  thought  it  well  to  assist  the 
soil  to  the  extent  of  our  means.  With 
our  determined  and  persistent  hoes,  we 
composted  the  guano  of  the  hennery 
with  plaster,  until  it  was  fine,  dry,  and 
inodorous. 

Such  a  task  as  that  was ! 

Lou  would  stop  and  lean  her  forehead, 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    ijg 

wet  and  red,  upon  her  hoe-handle,  and 
utter  a  bit  of  the  current  but  kindly 
neighborhood  sarcasm. 

"  '  Two  girls  I '  don't  you  think  so, 
Dolly  ?  " 

Dolly  did  think  so,  sometimes. 

Then,  with  a  pail  in  one  hand,  and  a 
wooden  spoon  in  the  other,  we  each 
went  over  the  field  and  deposited  a 
modicum  of  this  home-made  fertilizer 
wherever  a  hill  of  corn  was  to  grow. 

Such  preliminary  work  was,  of  course, 
very  tedious.  But  it  made  a  difference, 
we  think,  if  the  opinions  concerning  the 
state  of  the  soil  were  correct,  of  at  least 
forty  bushels  per  acre;  for  the  barren 
mullen  field   yielded  us,  upon  an  average, 


7^0    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

ninety  bushels  to  the  acre.  And  let  me 
say  again  that  in  most  instances,  as  in 
this,  it  has  paid  us  to  "  work  our  farm 
with  ideesT  Our  superior  melons  and 
turnips,  savoys  and  strawberries,  as  well 
as  our  corn  crops,  are  the  result  of 
special  work  upon  special  plans,  assisted 
by  special  fertilizers;  in  no  instance  the 
costly  ones  of  commerce,  but  home-made 
and  carefully  adapted  by  means  of 
many  experiments. 

The  fragrant  May  days  passed.  Our 
corn  shot  up  its  delicate  pointed  blades, 
our  currant  and  berry  settings  puffed 
and  ruffled  themselves  from  top  to  toe 
with  their  little  frilled  leaves  of  exqui- 
site    green,     and     each     morning     there 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    i^i 

was  some  miraculous  development  at  the 
garden  beds.  It  was  a  pretty  sight  of 
a  mid-May  morning :  our  "  variegated 
foliage "  beets,  peas,  finger  high,  onion 
beds,  rank  upon  rank  of  green  lances, 
lettuces  fit  for  salad  and  mayonnaise, 
tomatoes  needing  trellis,  potatoes  high, 
thick  and  green,  all  freshly  hoed  and 
sparkling  with  dew.  Ah,  it  is  worth 
while  to  make  garden !  Not  that  ours 
has  ever  been  particularly  early,  not  that 
we  could  ever  compete  with  a  dozen 
Irish  women  near  us,  who  raise  "  truck  " 
for  the  markets.  Oh,  no !  every  season 
one  can  buy  cucumbers  when  our  vines 
are  just  bestarring  themselves  with  their 
little  yellow  blossoms;  and   the  groceries 


1^2    How  Tzvo  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

are  gay    with    red,    ripe    tomatoes    when 
ours   are   only  "  beginning  to  turn,"   and 
so  on ;    and  we  have  quite  our  share    of 
hand-to-hand  fight   with  cut- worm,  potato 
bug,    striped-bug,     ants,    the     onion     fl)^ 
and    frost,     and    drought;    but    still     w.. 
have  always  had  both  plenty  and  perfec 
tion  in   the  end,  and  a  world    of   simple 
pleasures  by  the  way. 

A  little  later  came  "  cultivating  corn  ** 
and  this  we  found  to  our  relief  to  be 
entirely  practicable,  although  Pampas  did 
his  best  to  render  cousin  John's  instruc- 
tions of  none  effect.  Nothing  could 
induce  him,  that  first  season,  to  cross 
the  field  at  less  than  his  road  pace,  his 
naughty,  handsome  head  held  aloft,  every 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmmg,    i^j 

few  moments  breaking  into  a  trot.  After 
experimenting  with  him  during  one  fore- 
noon, we  took  him  down  to  the  stable, 
and  I  donned  my  long  dress  and  went 
up  to  Mr.  Kromer's.  There  I  succeeded 
in  lending  him  to  take  Mr.  Kromer  a 
journey,  and  in  borrowing  in  return 
steady  old  Jane,  who  would  demurely 
walk  up  and  down  the  rows  with  me  at 
my  own    leisurely   pace. 

We   are    kept     thus    busy    with     hoe 
and     cultivator     all     the     summer     long. 

We  spend  few  daylight  hours  in  the 
house  —  the  house  is  still  a  secondary 
matter  —  and  look  on  to  a  snug  winter 
in-doors  with  a  zest  indescribable.  The 
autumn  months  come  on  apace,  bringing 


1^4    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming. 

still  harder  work  and  greater  hurry. 
We  cut  up  our  corn,  husk  it,  build  a 
homely  crib  of  poles,  draw  our  stalks 
and  stack  them,  thus  really  mastering 
the  corn-crop  —  dig  our  potatoes,  store 
our  vegetables,  and  chatter  rejoicingly 
like  two  squirrels  as  we  heap  up  our 
winter  cheer. 

As  the  long,  cold  winter  finally  closes 
us  in,  we  look  cheerily  from  our  win- 
dows out  upon  the  world.  Of  course 
some  strange,  abnormal  labors  fall  to 
our  lot ;  there  are  paths  to  be  shoveled 
through  the  snow,  Pampas  and  the  Mag- 
gies to  be  daily  led  forth  to  water,  sta- 
bles to  be  kept  in  wholesome  order. 
But  we  do  it,  therefore  others  can. 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    145 

The  in-door  coseyness,  the  sense  of  in- 
dependence, fully  reward  us  for  it  all. 
There  is  no  enjoyment  quite  like  that 
which  quietly  comes  as  the  lot  of  thrift 
and  industry.  We  have  succeeded  in 
avoiding  all  debt  save  that  which  in  due 
time  the  well-fattened  Polands  cancel. 
Maggie,  feeding  through  the  fall  upon 
our  golden  pumpkins,  enables  us,  with 
her  beautiful  butter,  to  fill  the  winter 
flour  barrel ;  and  a  surplus  of  potatoes 
purchases  a  store  of  groceries.  Eggs, 
week  by  week,  supply  "  items."  A  day's 
work  —  O,  such  a  lovely  day's  work  — 
of  picking  apples  "  upon  shares "  in  the 
Kromer  orchards  has  filled  the  tiny  apple 
bin.      During    the    brief   leisures,  various 


146    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farmmg. 

pieces  of  sewing  provide  hay  for  Pampas. 
Spring  finds  us  not  in  debt,  and  more 
hopeful  than  ever  of  "  our  plan." 

Year  after  year  we  live  on  after  this 
fashion,  tugging  away  at  great  labors 
and  knowing  few  leisures,  but  kept 
cheery  by  the  thought  that  we  have 
already  lived  so  comfortably  so  long, 
cooing  away  to  ourselves  we  are  not  in 
debt,  that  our  plan  bids  fair  of  success, 
until  we  begin  to  hear,  on  this  hand  and 
on  that : 

"  Why,  how  prosperous  those  girl 
farmers  are  !     Did  you  ever  see  the  like  ?  " 

Then  we  pause,  and  look  about  us, 
and  find  it  is  so.  The  time  has  come. 
We   ourselves   see  what   a   green,    grassy 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    z^/ 

leafy  nest  the  once  despised  little  farm 
is,  with  its  gardens  and  its  fruit  yards, 
its  rosy  clover  meadows,  and  its  rich 
upland  pastures. 

We  frankly  confess  to  all  the  world 
that  we  have  not  proved  equal  to  the 
much  "  mixed  farming,"  to  the  raising  of 
general  crops,  to  the  personal  tillage  of 
plow  lands,  We,  however,  have  been  at 
disadvantage,  physically.  We  possess  but 
the  minimum  muscular  strength  of  wo- 
man ;  the  limits  close  around  about  us 
nearly.  The  tall,  long-limbed,  and  large- 
framed  woman,  may  be  far  more  grandly 
independent.  Still,  we  doubt  whether  she 
makes  much  more  money  than  we,  in  our 
circumscribed,  special  ways. 


i^}.8   How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

However,  we  can  assure  those  who  pre- 
fer to  work,  rather  than  "  manage,"  that 
years  before  our  experiment  there  were 
women,  here  and  there,  who  were  suc- 
ceeding in  "  mixed  farming."  There  were 
also  other  women  who  were  able  to 
profitably  direct  large  agricultural  opera- 
tions. But  it  is  not  wisdom  to  point  to 
brilliant  successes ;  the  average  woman 
may  well  be  more  interested  in  the  other 
average  woman,  who  simply  "  makes  a 
good   living  "  off  her  land. 

For  example,  while  we  were  attempt- 
ing our  plan,  one  brave  New  Hampshire 
woman,  for  many  years  had  had  the 
entire  care  of  an  hundred-acre  farm. 
She   had    been   previously   a   sewing-girl, 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    I4g 

giving  up  her  employment  on  account 
of  a  cancerous  trouble.  She  began  grad- 
ually, assisting  her  father ;  but  for  twenty 
years  she  has  had  the  farm  in  her  own 
hands,  having  perfectly  recovered  her 
health. 

This  woman  farmer  does  all  the  work 
that  any  man  farmer  does,  has  no  help 
except  as  she  "  changes  work  "  with  her 
neighbors,  as  men  in  similar  cases  do. 
She  plows  all  day,  holding  the  plow, 
while  a  boy  drives,  plowing  an  acre  of 
rough  land  per  day,  which  in  her  vicinity 
is  considered  a  good  day's  work.  She 
cuts  twelve  tons  of  hay  annually  —  mows, 
cures,  loads  and  stores  it  away  herself, 
exchanging  work  with  her  neighbors  for 


1^0    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

extra  help,  even  as  a  man  would.  She 
harrows,  plants,  hoes  and  reaps.  In  1879, 
she  raised  thirty  bushels  of  potatoes,  do- 
ing all  the  work  from  first  to  last.  She 
keeps  three  cows,  last  year  marketing 
over  two  hundred  pounds  of  butter.  Last 
autumn  she  picked  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  bushels  of  apples.  She  draws 
her  own  wood,  sometimes  cutting  it,  and 
always  loading  and  unloading,  managing 
her  ox  team  and  her  sled  with  the  skill 
of  a  crack  teamster.  She  also  does  all 
her  housework,  at  present  living  quite 
alone.  Her  house  is  tidy,  her  buildings 
well  kept,  and  everything  has  the  look 
of  being  in  the  hands  of  a  thrifty  farmer. 
She   enjoys   her  work,  is    independent  in 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    r^i 

her  operations,  asking   no    man's    advice. 
She  feels  no  need  of  advice. 

We  have  not  done  all  this ;  still,  sub- 
stantially, we  have  been  "  true  to  the 
early  dream."  The  "  golden  foot  of  the 
sheep  "  is  at  last  on  our  once  barren  hill- 
tops. Durham  Maggie  and  Maggie  II. 
and  Maggie  III.  and  Jersey  Daisy  feed 
luxuriously  upon  the  deep,  sweet  grasses, 
and  the  honeyed  clover-blossoms,  while 
the  cream-rising  and  the  money-making 
go  on  together  in  the  cool,  shadowy  milk- 
room  day  by  day.  The  butter  shipped 
in  tubs,  the  choice  mutton  sheep,  the 
fleeces  in  a  load,  are  not  representative 
of  a  runious  and  aggravating  amount  of 
either   hired  or   personal    labor,  and    give 


1^2    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

us  our  money  in  that  profitable  shape, 
"  the  lump,"  and  we  have  built  a  barn, 
"  a  love  of  a  barn " —  the  talk  of  the 
neighborhood,  since  it  is  a  genuine 
girl's  barn,  all  stairs  and  doors,  "an 
adorable  barn,"  in  fact ;  yet  we  have  found 
each  of  the  fourteen  doors  handy,  as  our 
Maggies  are  not  imprisoned  in  stancheons 
but  each  has  her  own  cosey  room  with 
its  separate  outer  entrance  —  there  are  no 
ugly  passage-ways  in  which  to  turn  and 
"lock  horns." 

We  think  we  have  been  wise.  Even 
the  "  mixed "  farmer  and  strong  plow- 
woman  of  whom  I  have  told  you,  and 
of  whom  much  more  might  be  profitably 
told,  is    gradually   abandoning    her    field 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    i^j 

crops  for  the  dairy  and  for  stock  raising. 
We  think  that  the  care  of  small  flocks 
and  herds  is  an  easy,  gentle,  and 
womanly  occupation.  We  like  their 
friendship  and  their  company,  and  I 
dare  say  spend  much  unnecessary  time 
with  them.  Lou  carries  her  neatness 
and  love  of  order  into  their  quarters, 
and  the  sheep-cote  and  the  barn  are 
always  pleasant  places  to  visit.  I  often 
tell  her  that  the  sheds,  so  clean  and 
warm  and  strawy,  are  as  inviting  as 
the  house,  and  that  I  don't  see  why,  for 
hundreds  of  overworked  women,  the 
Arcadian  time  of  shepherdesses  might 
not  profitably  come  again. 

"  I     know   it,    Dolly,"   answers    Louise 


i^^j.    How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming, 

earnestly.  "  I  too,  have  thought  of  it 
so  much.  And  now  that  men  are  com- 
ing more  and  more  to  share  their  occu- 
pations with  us,  I  do  wish  that  some  of 
those  women  who  are  so  tired  and  rest- 
less and  discouraged,  and  haven't  brains 
enough  to  become  doctors  and  lawyers 
or  business  women  of  any  kind,  and 
yet  need  money  just  as  badly,  could  see 
what  a  pleasant  way  of  living  this  is.  I 
wish  we  could  tell  them  in  some  way, 
Dolly,  just  how  we  do.  We  raise  nearly 
everything  we  consume  you  know,  except 
wheat — that  is  we  raise  the  means  to 
buy  what  we  don't  raise.  It  would  be 
such  a  relief,  such  a  restoration  to  health 
and  youth  even,   to  rise   in  the  morning 


How  Two  Girls  Tried  Farming,    755 

their  own  mistresses.  This  unspoken  yet 
ever-uttered  "  by  your  leave,"  is  so  wear- 
ing. O,  I  do  wish  you  could  tell  them 
Dolly !  " 

And     Lou's   wish    is  the  reason   d  etre 
of    my  story. 


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